Each agency and organization has different hiring practices and policies both for new employees and for existing employees who want to support wildland fire in a collateral duty. Please contact your local land management agency or employer for more specific information. You may also visit the National Interagency Fire Center's website for information on firefighter careers and wildland firefighting resources.

Individual membership to NWCG committees and subgroups is based upon several factors, including qualifications, experience, location, and position. If you are interested in representing your agency on a committee or subgroup, contact the committee or subgroup chair or your agency representative on the NWCG Executive Board.

For more information on committee membership and agency representation, see Committee Roles and Membership Information.

The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) and National Interagency Coordination Center (NICC) provide national statistics and fire information.  You can also find links to the Geographic Area Coordination Centers via the NICC.  

Inciweb is a single source of large fire incident-related information, including maps, photos, and updates, for all states and agencies.  Other state and local fire information sites are also available.  Always follow authoritative sources for emergency information and critical updates.

The 'successful performance' prerequisite to a qualification may include the final trainee assignment as long as that assignment resulted in full agency certification.

You can find everything you need to place an order on our website under NFES Catalogs. NWCG NFES Catalog - Part 2: Publications, PMS 449-2, is the catalog and order form for all publications. All orders are made and placed through the Great Basin Cache. If you have any questions, please contact their supply desk at (208) 387-5104 or blm_fa_gbk@blm.gov.

All orders are made and placed through the Great Basin Cache. If you have any questions, please contact their supply desk at (208) 387-5104 or blm_fa_gbk@blm.gov. They are the best source to answer your questions.

NWCG does not have a standard. It is up to your home unit/agency to determine.

If the experience occurred three or more years ago, no; it does not meet currency requirements. Otherwise, check with your home unit/agency for direction.

These two positions perform distinctly different roles.

The employing unit/agency certifying official is the only person authorized to certify an employee’s qualification, not a final evaluator (whether the evaluator is employed by the same unit/agency or not). A Fire Management Officer who is the designated certifying official for a unit/agency may also coincidentally be the final evaluator but, in that case, would be serving a distinctly different role.

No, you must meet all position qualification requirements, and your home unit/agency certifying official must grant you qualification in the position.

The employing home unit/agency makes that determination through established agency certification procedures; simply completing the PTB may or may not meet agency requirements. Check with your agency Certifying Official for clarification.

This determination can only be made by the employing unit/agency.

You should note at the time of evaluation your disagreement on the Incident Experience Record and advise your home unit/agency. The Certifying Official cannot change the evaluation since it was based on observed performance, but you could contact the evaluator for further information and resolution.

This varies greatly depending on the extent of the experience, length of the incident, and other factors.

No. If more records/experiences are necessary, duplicate blank ones or download additional evaluations from the NWCG Position Task Book Catalog, and attach them to the relevant PTB.

Any home unit/agency has the latitude to increase minimum requirements for its own personnel. However, those agencies would still be bound to accept personnel from other agencies who meet minimum requirements.

No. Some formal training courses will remain mandatory.

No. Tasks designated as W must be performed on wildfires for that individual to meet qualification requirements of the position.

It depends. For positions designated as wildland fire (WF)—see front cover of PTB—an NWCG PTB will need to be completed. If there is no WF designation, there is no need to have a new PTB issued.

It depends. You will need to work with the Incident Training Specialist and your home unit/agency to gain approval for issuing a new PTB. The home unit/agency will need to initiate the PTB, which can be sent via email/fax.

Students successfully completing an NWCG course sponsored by an NWCG member agency will receive an NWCG Training Course Completion Certificate, PMS 921-1 (for a list of member agencies, see the NWCG Home Page).  

The NWCG Standards for Course Delivery, PMS 901-1, provides direction on the issuance of the NWCG Training Course Completion Certificate.

Unfortunately, there is no master database for course certificates. Reach out to the agency or location where you took the course to see if they kept a copy and/or record. If you have held a red card, you can get a copy of your Incident Qualifications and Certification System (IQCS) or Incident Qualification System (IQS) master record, which shows course completions. Contact the agency or location that issued your red card to get that information.

To print a certificate for an online course, please see the answer to How do I print my NWCG NFA Online course completion certificate?, under Online Training Questions.

Generally, PTBs can be initiated before attendance and successful completion of required training. However, trainees cannot become fully qualified for the position until required training has been successfully completed. A trainee must be qualified in the prerequisite position(s) before a PTB can be initiated.

Instructor qualifications and requirements are found in the NWCG Standards for Course Delivery, PMS 901-1. 

NWCG intends to make all training and performance support content freely available from the website so it is fully interconnected, easily accessible, and can readily serve as reference material for students and practitioners. This effort is ongoing. While CDs/DVDs/USBs for some courses are no longer sold through the cache, other materials might be. Reference the NWCG Training Catalog for all courses and listings of course materials.

Instructor-Led Courses Available for Download from the NWCG Training Catalog:

Course Coordinators and instructors should download the materials from the catalog. Course Coordinators and instructors intending to use the WFLP to deliver these courses may load materials into the WFLP for their training sessions.

Instructor-Led Courses Available for Order (National Fire Equipment System [NFES]):

Course Coordinators and instructors must still order materials for many courses. Use the NWCG NFES Catalog – Part 2: Publications, PMS 449-2, catalog and order form worksheet.

RT-130, Wildland Fire Safety Training Annual Refresher (WFSTAR):

See the RT-130, WFSTAR Catalog for information on delivering RT-130, WFSTAR courses.

As the NWCG Training Catalog transitions from print to digital, an additional reference date for course materials has been added. Previously, courses were printed in large quantities and spent significant time on the shelf in the cache. During that time, policy and terms changed, errors were discovered, and feedback was collected. The revision cycle started when materials were out of date and/or a significant number of errors, policy changes, or feedback were collected. Between the certification date and the start of the revision cycle, updates were collected in list form and posted for instructors to view prior to teaching the course. Once revised, courses were tested, then certified, which generates the certification date.

With the move to digital course materials, the revision cycle is no longer linked to physical materials or the associated revision cycle. NWCG now has the ability, as well as the need, to move much more quickly. NWCG will continue posting a certification date for those courses which have been significantly revised, but a new reference to updated has been added. This term applies to courses which have had elements revised or updated but did not necessitate a full-scale revision or a test course.

To review course content after the course has automatically moved into the Completed Work pod, select MY LEARNING HOME and then select VIEW ALL.

Find the course you wish to review content, hover over the course name, wait for pop-up, then select the REVIEW CONTENT option.

If the course has automatically tracked in the NFA Online Learning Management System, student logs into their NFA Online account. From the Home Page, select VIEW ALL in the Completed Work pod.

Find the course you wish to review content or print a module certificate for, hover over the course name, then select the REVIEW CONTENT option.

To print an S-130 or S-190 module completion certificate, from the Course Content screen select a completed module and double click to launch the module. When the module topic page is open, select and click the CHALLENGE REVIEW topic, then select the PRINT CERTIFICATE option in the lower left of the screen.

Unfortunately, we do not have the ability to help you with this as the NAP is run by the Interagency Incident Applications Helpdesk.

Mistakes in content, missing information, bad links, etc.

InciWeb is an interagency system that provides information about wildfires, prescribed burns, floods, hurricanes, and other events. An agency and/or Incident Management Team assigned to the incident is responsible for initiating and maintaining information on InciWeb. For questions and/or comments on a specific incident, please contact the Incident Contacts listed on each page of an incident.

Technical problems, suggestions to make program better, java-script errors, etc.

Please contact the Interagency Incident Applications Helpdesk.

Our policy on linking to other websites is listed on our website notices page. We follow the policies for the Department of Interior and the Department of Agriculture; both are referenced on this page. If you feel your site meets these criteria, please email the webmaster.