Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Upon successful completion students should be able to:

• Integrate an understanding of the incident command system into an emergency incident involving wild land/urban interface.
• Create incident action plans to implement at emergency incidents that ensure the effective use of available resources to ensure life safety, environmental protection, and property conservation.
• Interpret factors that will influence the incident action plan and its implementation and assess the effectiveness of those actions.
• Implement the major steps taken during size-up in the appropriate order in which they will take place at a wild land/urban interface incident.
• Communicate effectively to appropriate constituencies the information needed to determine when it is safe to leave an area and how to effectively deal with the public in these situations.
• Apply the safety concerns during fire control operations that are specific to the wild land/urban interface environment.

This course is 28 hours in length, designed to be interactive with powerpoint visuals  and videos presentations, and contain exercises which facilitate student learnng and class discussion.

Student must obtain a 70 % or better on the closed book  unit tests and final examination to receive the certificate of completion for the course.

Each of the 8 units will have individual and group scenario exercises along with written exams that utilize a combination of multiple choice, multiple answers, true and false, and long answer questions.  A final exam will be all incluesive and contain 5 prectical scenarios situations and a 138 point written exam, closed book that will be made up of multiple choice, multiple answers, true and false questions, and long answer questions.  There will be practical evolutions for skills based activities in units that contain manipuative skills.

• Size up:  Provide students with basic knowledge to provide critical information to make proper decisions and take appropriate action on Urban Interface Fires.
• Provide students with the basic knowledge to correctly interpret the size up factors and quickly recognize the interface potential.
• Structure Triage:  Descrbie to the students the information necessary to determine the proper sorting and prioritizing of structures requireing protection from wild fire.
• Tactics:  Provide the student with the ability to successfully defend structures in a wild land fire by using different types of equipment, pesonal as well as different types of tactics to accomplish their goal.
• Action Plan Assessment:  Proide students with the information necessary to assess the efectiveness of their actions and to develop and update their action plan.
• Follow-up and Public Relations:  Provide students with the information so they may determine when it is safe to leave an area after the fire or heat wave has passed and how to effectively deal with the public in these situations.
• Safety:  Describe to the students additional important safety items to be concerned with,during fire control operations in the urban interface.