Our Roundtable Talks feature subject matter experts leading discussions on key topics relevant to the fire and emergency services. These sessions provide valuable insights, practical strategies, and expert perspectives in an engaging, conversational format. Attendees will have the opportunity to listen, learn, and ask questions in a dynamic setting designed to foster knowledge-sharing and professional growth.

The first line of defense against home fire injury, death, and loss of property is proper smoke alarm placement, installation, and having enough alarms in each home. The goal of this training, brought to you by the NVFC and First Alert, is to help you understand the updates to UL 217 - the standard for smoke alarms - and the strong need for community-based smoke alarm education programs. This course will give you the tools to help your neighbors reduce the risk of suffering from fire incidents. Proper smoke alarm installation and education can help make your community safer.

Fire Prevention Week (FPW) will take place October 6-12, 2024, with the theme “Smoke alarms: Make them work for you!™” This live panel discussion will focus on the importance of this year’s theme, how your department can participate in FPW, and tips and ideas you can use for public education throughout the year. Presenters: Meri-K Appy, Brene Ball, Robby Dawson, Michael McLeieer (moderator)

The effectiveness of emergency response in pipeline incidents rests upon collaboration between the emergency services community and pipeline operators. This course discusses how your fire department can forge relationships with operators and other stakeholders to enhance its training, safety, and response to pipeline emergencies. Topics covered will help you understand your risks, identify collaborative drills and exercises, discover mutual aid opportunities, and build partnerships to better protect both your responders and community.

This training is offered with two parts, focusing on overall firefighter health and safety and how to build a successful department health program. In Part 1, you will learn about firefighter-specific health risk factors and review of key components of a comprehensive functional wellness program, including physical fitness, recovery and rest, hydration, and nutrition. In Part 2, you will learn practical and realistic approaches to introducing an evidence-based, sustainable program for your department.

This course will provide an overview of why risk management is important, not just to those in leadership positions within the fire service, but to all firefighters and EMS personnel.

This training prepares fire departments to educate residents so they can reduce preventable injuries and deaths in the home, with a primary focus on fire and references to falls, poisonings, drownings, choking, and firearms. This course is sponsored by First Alert.

This course is about resilience, or the process of adapting well in the face of adversity and trauma. Resilience is a crucial ability for first responders to help them stay in the game and retire emotionally and physically healthy. Most importantly, it is a learnable ability. Whether you are a new volunteer or a veteran first responder, this course will help you be able to “bounce back” from traumatic calls and the daily grind. The course introduces six key skills based on ground-breaking science and a module on "Leading the Resilient Department” for officers.

Liquid or gas pipelines run through the response areas of many volunteer fire and emergency services organizations across the country. This course takes a deep dive into pipeline awareness and readiness for first responders. Topics covered include emergency response to pipeline incidents, types of pipelines, risk management, the role of SOPs/SOGs and resources for pipeline incidents.

Your fire department is in an excellent position to increase community awareness and provide age-appropriate education about preventing home fires and addressing other life safety issues. At the same time, it’s essential to build rapport with the local news media to incorporate fire and life safety messaging into relevant news stories. This course, presented by fire prevention education expert Michael McLeieer, will discuss strategic ways to develop a positive relationship with citizens, other stakeholders, and local media outlets to connect with the community, as well as existing resources and lesson plans available to enhance your fire prevention initiatives.