Incident Command Training Orange County Fire Rescue Department

E2i’s Incident Command Training system is part of a FEMA-funded project created in partnership with Orange County Fire & Rescue Department (OCFRD). Based on the workplace needs of OCFRD, our group designed a dynamic system to train next generation incident command personnel.

New trainees typically have less live training opportunities and experience than their predecessors. E2i worked collaboratively with the battalion chiefs to design and launch a tool to meet this and other training needs. The result is an immersive simulation that tests the Incident Command trainee’s ability to make the correct decisions as they command a fire scene. The instructors present them with dynamic scenarios that involve a range of environments (e.g., commercial structures to forest/urban border lands) and parameters (e.g., weather changes).

This system has been in active use as part of the training for new personnel in OCFRD since its launch and has trained over 900 lieutenants on Incident Command. Fire leadership report a fundamental increase in effective dispatch communications, and fire scene management, with lieutenants who have completed this training.