Student of Fire Initiative

From Spark to Flame – Building the Future of Wildland Fire Training

High Quality Training and Evaluation

The mission of the Student of Fire Initiative is twofold: deliver high quality training for wildland fire professionals and evaluate the training impact to ensure learning leads to meaningful change. We are a team of fire practitioners, researchers, and educators who are passionate about wildland fire and professional development. We support fire professionals through practical, research informed and field-tested training. We welcome opportunities for collaboration with individuals, agencies, and organizations, both within the United States and abroad, to provide high quality training to those interested in wildland fire.

Learn more About our Training

Upcoming Training Offerings

Training	Date
S-290	Feb 23 – Feb 27, 2026
Rx-310	Mar 23 – Apr 17, 2026
M-410	Mar 23 – Apr 3, 2026
S-290	Apr 13 – Apr 17, 2026
S-215	Apr 20 – Apr 29, 2026

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Four Components to Fullfil Our Mission

Training

Our team delivers NWCG certified courses such as S-290, RX 310, and M-410 and non-NWCG workshops such as fuels monitoring. We aim to go above and beyond the minimum requirements and offer additional knowledge that supports professional development on and off the fireline. We follow adult learning principles that personalize learning and provide valuable, real-world applications. Enrollment can occur at the individual or group level and special sessions can be requested for specific units. Pricing can be scaled based on the involvement of local cadre.

Evalution

As passionate facilitators, we want to make sure training brings meaningful change. We evaluate our training using best practices in evaluation standards and adjust our training to improve effectiveness. We also strongly believe having high quality training should not be exclusive to any one group, rather all should have access to high quality training. The initiative also provides services and support in helping other cadres and organizations evaluate their own specific training and adjust accordingly.

Research

We are researchers with a desire to identify and share ways to increase quality training across all wildland fire training. We seek out ways to increase accessibility to wildland fire training whether it be online or in person, leveraging data for continuous improvement and using technology to improve learning outcomes. We welcome all invitations for research collaboration opportunities.

Resources

Our initiative offers a wide range of fire related and fire learning resources that range from practical job aids to comprehensive training and evaluations. We believe that everyone can be a lifelong student of fire, and we are committed to supporting that journey with accessible, reliable, and field driven resources.

Frequently Asked Questions

Online training has many advantages – if designed and administered intentionally.

Flexible timing – some portion of online classes can be completed any time (asynchronous) and some of our courses are spread our over a longer time period and can work within your day job.
Independent learning – Learning can take place at your pace so you can take extra time on concepts you really want to understand.
Continued access to material – course content is always available for you to review and you can continue refer to as you need it.
Diverse perspectives – online classes can bring in the best experts from all over, and students can be from many areas, giving diverse perspectives and connections.

All that being said, not every class should have online content, and not every student will benefit from online training. If you really know that online learning is not your style, we encourage you to find in-person offerings.

No, when you see a course listed as “online” but showing “live-sessions” his means that there are required times of the day when you will need to engaged in an online meeting – also known as synchronous. Pay attention to the time zones listed on the training announcement and reserve these times as they are critical to the learning of that content.

Most likely yes – we spread some of our classes over several weeks in which case there might be time to complete the content for more than one course. We schedule our courses so the live sessions online sessions do not overlap. It is critical to remember that each course has a required number of hours, and you need to reserve enough time to complete the time and work requirements. Feel free to reach out to the instructors to get a better understanding of how the class runs.

Yes. We have a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Idaho Department of Lands that allows us to sign NWCG certificates. We do NOT enter these trainings into IQCS, so it is up to the students to bring their records of training to their training officers. The MOU is available upon request.

Yes, but careful here. Make sure to account for the time you will need to meet the required time and most importantly, get the most out of the material. Please alert your employer that, while you are not out of the office, that you have important work to do in training. Consider live online sessions as times that you are unavailable. Would you leave an in-person class for a burn day? No – so don’t blow off your live online sessions for work. Make the investment to get the most out of the course while you are in it, there will be other burn days.

Yes. The money we earn from putting on training goes directly into developing more classes. Tell us what you need and we can see if our team has the expertise to develop training for that, or we will partner with you to put it together. Feel free to Contact Us for more information.

Yes, some of our training courses are part of classes at the University of Idaho. You can register for these classes as a degree-seeking or non-degree seeking student as part of a formal degree or just to build your credit base. The University of Idaho has the following degrees to meet the needs of various levels: A.S. in Wildland Fuels and Fire, B.S. in Fire Ecology and Management, and M.N.R. in Fire Ecology and Management. You will need to perform additional work beyond the training requirements to obtain credit. Inquire with the course facilitator for more information.

Yes, we will take requests for group training by either working in batch enrollments into our current offerings or hosting trainings for just your group. We can negotiate an adjusted cost depending on the level of involvement your group wants to have. We are excited about the possibility of training more trainers and at a minimum can give a free consultation on getting rolling with some of the training we have designed Feel free to Contact Us for more information.

Yes. We want to help you be successful in your training efforts and have methods to evaluate training effectiveness. Feel free to Contact Us for more information.