MCFRI delivers training and in-depth coursework in Incident Command, Fire Officer leadership, Public Information & Crisis Communications, Emergency Management, and 911 Dispatch & Supervision.
Every course is delivered in the classroom, live online, or both.
Rigorous, certification-aligned coursework you can take from a classroom seat or your own desk.
Most courses run both ways — attend in person at our classroom facilities, or join the same live, instructor-led session remotely.
Every course is built on NIMS/ICS, so an incident commander, a PIO, an EOC manager, and a dispatch supervisor speak the same language under pressure.
From PIO fundamentals to multi-agency JIC command, our Communications track is one of the largest and most detailed in the catalog.
Fire Officer I leads to II, III, and IV. ICS-300 leads to ICS-400 and beyond. Every track is a ladder, not a one-off class.
Every MCFRI course sits under one of five tracks — browse by role, or search the full catalog directly.
"Every officer who walks into an EOC or a JIC for the first time should already know the language. That's what this kind of training is for."
Illustrative feedback from an EM-200 cohort
Individual seats or full-agency cohorts — classroom, live online, or both.
Every course is delivered in the classroom, live online, or both. Search or filter to find the right track for your role.
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ICS-100 and ICS-200 are free, self-paced courses offered directly by FEMA's Emergency Management Institute. We pick up the Incident Command track at ICS-300, which — like ICS-400 — FEMA does not offer as independent study and requires a live instructor.
Day 1 — Unified Command & Complex Organization (2 modules) — Agency administrator briefings and how an incident organization grows as complexity increases.
Day 2 — The Planning Process (3 modules) — The Incident Action Planning cycle (the "Planning P"), resource management and ordering, and demobilization planning.
Day 3 — Capstone Simulation (2 modules) — A multi-day simulated incident exercise scored against span-of-control and planning-cycle standards, followed by a final scenario exam.
Day 1 — Area Command & MACS (2 modules) — The distinction between Area Command and Unified Command, and how Multi-Agency Coordination Systems support both.
Day 2 — Major & Catastrophic Incident Organization (3 modules) — Case studies in complex incident management organization and the role of agency administrators in large events.
Day 3 — Capstone Scenario (2 modules) — A large-scale, multi-jurisdiction tabletop scenario in Command and General Staff roles, followed by an after-action review.
Day 1 — Building the Unified Command (3 modules) — Negotiating Unified Command agreements, setting shared incident objectives and priorities, and integrating resources across jurisdictions.
Day 2 — Communications & Case Study (2 modules) — Coordinating public information across a Unified Command, followed by a guided case study and debrief.
Week 1 — Team Structure & Planning Cycle (3 modules) — IMT typing and team composition, the operational planning cycle, and how to build and deliver an incident briefing using standard ICS forms.
Week 2 — Mobilization & Capstone Exercise (3 modules) — Mobilization and demobilization procedures for IMTs, after-action reporting standards, and a capstone tabletop deployment exercise.
Week 1 — From Firefighter to Supervisor (2 modules) — The transition into a supervisory role, and the authority, responsibility, and accountability that come with it.
Week 2 — Personnel Issues & Performance Counseling (2 modules) — Basic personnel issue resolution, conflict de-escalation among crew members, and performance counseling fundamentals.
Week 3 — Safety Officer Duties & Pre-Incident Planning (2 modules) — Company-level safety officer responsibilities and the basics of pre-incident planning for first-due areas.
Week 4 — Crew Resource Management & Capstone (2 modules) — Crew resource management principles, followed by a supervisory scenario exercise and written certification exam.
Week 1 — Budget Input & Community Risk Reduction (2 modules) — How company officers contribute to station-level budget requests and support community risk-reduction programs.
Week 2 — Performance Evaluation & Documentation (2 modules) — Writing defensible performance evaluations and documenting progressive discipline correctly.
Week 3 — Pre-Incident Planning & Public Relations (2 modules) — Building pre-incident plans and inspection programs, plus media and public relations for company officers.
Week 4 — Labor Awareness & Capstone (2 modules) — Labor-management awareness for company officers, followed by a case study and certification exam.
Week 1 — Multi-Company Supervision (2 modules) — Supervision models and span of control at the battalion level, across multiple companies and shifts.
Week 2 — Resource Allocation & Mutual Aid (2 modules) — Allocating resources across shifts and stations, and managing mutual aid agreements during sustained demand.
Week 3 — Labor-Management Relations (2 modules) — Grievance process fundamentals and the chief officer’s role in labor-management relations.
Week 4 — Staffing & Liaison Responsibilities (2 modules) — Strategic staffing and overtime management, plus multi-agency liaison responsibilities at the battalion level.
Week 5 — Policy Development & Capstone (2 modules) — Developing battalion-level policy, followed by a capstone case study presentation.
Week 1 — Strategic Planning Fundamentals (2 modules) — Strategic planning frameworks and aligning a department’s vision and mission with day-to-day operations.
Week 2 — Organizational Change Management (2 modules) — Leading organizational change and engaging internal and external stakeholders through the process.
Week 3 — Policy & Risk Management (2 modules) — The policy development and legal review process, and department-level risk management.
Week 4 — Budget & Labor Strategy (2 modules) — Budget and capital planning, and labor negotiation strategy from the chief officer’s seat.
Week 5 — Crisis Leadership & Succession (2 modules) — Crisis leadership, reputation management, and building a succession plan for the department.
Week 6 — Capstone Strategic Plan (2 modules) — A department-wide strategic plan project, presented to and critiqued by a peer panel.
Week 1 — Adult Learning Theory & Lesson Planning (3 modules) — Core principles of adult learning, writing learning objectives, and structuring a complete lesson plan.
Week 2 — Classroom Delivery & Evaluation (2 modules) — Classroom and live-online delivery technique, and methods for evaluating student performance fairly.
Week 3 — Training Safety & Capstone (2 modules) — Safety considerations in the training environment, followed by a teaching demonstration with peer evaluation.
Week 1 — Fire Behavior & Scene Preservation (3 modules) — Fire behavior and pattern recognition, scene preservation procedures, and basic origin-and-cause indicators.
Week 2 — Interviews, Reports & Capstone (3 modules) — Interviewing witnesses, writing investigator-ready reports, and a closing case study review.
Week 1 — The PIO Role & Writing for Media (3 modules) — The PIO’s role within ICS, writing press releases and statements, and AP Style fundamentals.
Week 2 — Public Records & Message Mapping (2 modules) — Public records law and disclosure basics, plus building a message map for a single incident.
Week 3 — Reporters & Capstone (2 modules) — Working effectively with reporters and editors, followed by a mock press release and instructor critique.
Week 1 — Principles of Crisis Communication (2 modules) — Core principles of crisis and risk communication, and analyzing an audience under stress.
Week 2 — On-Camera Technique (2 modules) — On-camera technique, body language, and bridging language that keeps a spokesperson on message.
Week 3 — Difficult Moments (3 modules) — Delivering bad news, handling hostile questions, and building long-term public trust after a crisis.
Week 4 — Mock Press Conference (2 modules) — A live, recorded mock press conference exercise with full playback and critique.
Week 1 — Standing Up a JIC (3 modules) — JIC structure and staffing models, how to stand one up quickly, and the core roles within it.
Week 2 — Coordinating Multiple Spokespeople (2 modules) — Coordinating multiple agency spokespeople and the approval workflow behind a joint release.
Week 3 — Tabletop Activation (2 modules) — A multi-agency JIC activation tabletop exercise, followed by an after-action debrief.
Week 1 — Senior PIO Responsibilities (2 modules) — Senior PIO roles and responsibilities, and building a strategic communications plan before an incident occurs.
Week 2 — Multi-Jurisdictional Alignment (2 modules) — Aligning messaging across multiple jurisdictions, and working effectively with elected officials during a crisis.
Week 3 — Sustained Operations (2 modules) — Communications planning for incidents that last days, not hours, including staff rotation and burnout management.
Week 4 — Extended Tabletop Exercise (3 modules) — A multi-day, multi-jurisdiction tabletop exercise run across the full week, simulating a sustained joint response.
Week 5 — After-Action & Capstone (2 modules) — Writing a communications after-action report, followed by a capstone presentation and peer review.
Week 1 — Platform Strategy & Monitoring (3 modules) — Platform-specific posting cadence and tone, and the social-listening tools used to monitor public sentiment in real time.
Week 2 — Countering Misinformation (2 modules) — A practical framework for identifying and countering misinformation as it spreads, with a live-monitoring capstone exercise.
Week 1 — JIS Structure & Templates (3 modules) — Joint Information System structure, and building shared message templates and approval chains.
Week 2 — Coordinating Releases (2 modules) — Coordinating simultaneous releases across multiple agencies, including version control and release timing.
Week 3 — Tabletop & Capstone (2 modules) — A tabletop exercise with three agencies releasing coordinated information at once, followed by a capstone debrief.
Week 1 — The Four Phases & Authorities (3 modules) — Mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery, and the laws and authorities that govern them, including the Stafford Act and NIMS.
Week 2 — Planning Fundamentals (2 modules) — Mitigation and preparedness planning basics, and the fundamentals of response coordination.
Week 3 — Recovery & Capstone (2 modules) — An overview of recovery operations, followed by a capstone case study review.
Week 1 — Activation & the Planning P (2 modules) — EOC activation levels, staffing models, and an introduction to the operational planning cycle (the "Planning P").
Week 2 — EOC Section Roles (2 modules) — Operations, Planning, Logistics, and Finance/Administration section roles, plus situational awareness tools.
Week 3 — Briefings & Resource Requests (3 modules) — Briefing cycles and documentation standards, processing resource requests, and working with the policy group.
Week 4 — Tabletop Activation (2 modules) — A full EOC activation tabletop exercise, followed by a capstone debrief and evaluation.
Week 1 — Essential Functions & Succession (3 modules) — Identifying essential functions, establishing orders of succession, and delegating authority during a disruption.
Week 2 — Records & Reconstitution (2 modules) — Protecting vital records and systems, and planning for devolution and reconstitution after a disruption.
Week 3 — Testing & Capstone (2 modules) — Testing and exercising a COOP plan, followed by a capstone plan-writing workshop.
Week 1 — Hazard Identification & Risk Assessment (2 modules) — Hazard identification and risk assessment (HIRA) methods, and vulnerability assessment basics.
Week 2 — The FEMA Planning Process (2 modules) — The FEMA-aligned mitigation planning process and public engagement requirements.
Week 3 — Strategy & Funding (3 modules) — Developing a mitigation strategy, aligning it with available grant funding, and planning for ongoing plan maintenance.
Week 4 — Capstone Workshop (2 modules) — A hands-on mitigation plan workshop, with peer review and presentation.
Week 1 — HSEEP Fundamentals (2 modules) — HSEEP fundamentals, the major exercise types, and building an exercise design team.
Week 2 — Scenario & Objectives (2 modules) — Writing exercise objectives, scenario development, and building an exercise planning timeline.
Week 3 — Evaluation & Safety (2 modules) — Evaluation methodology, controller and evaluator roles, and safety planning for live exercises.
Week 4 — Practicum (3 modules) — A full-day simulated tabletop practicum, capturing real-time observations as a controller/evaluator team.
Week 5 — AAR/IP & Capstone (2 modules) — Writing an After-Action Report and Improvement Plan, followed by a capstone presentation.
Week 1 — Governance & Strategy (2 modules) — The EM director’s role in interagency governance, and core strategic planning frameworks.
Week 2 — Policy & Mutual Aid (2 modules) — Policy advocacy and legislative engagement, and building regional mutual aid agreements.
Week 3 — Budget & Workforce (2 modules) — Budget development, grant portfolio management, and workforce development for EM agencies.
Week 4 — Partnerships & Risk Communication (2 modules) — Building public-private partnerships, and risk communication at the director level.
Week 5 — Recovery Governance & Resilience (2 modules) — Long-term recovery governance and climate adaptation and resilience planning.
Week 6 — Capstone Strategic Plan (2 modules) — A director-level strategic plan project, presented to and critiqued by a panel of peers.
Week 1 — Roles & Legal Framework (3 modules) — The roles and responsibilities of a dispatcher, telephone and radio procedure, and the legal authority and liability behind the job.
Week 2 — Call-Taking Fundamentals (2 modules) — Core call-taking skills and the prioritization and triage protocols used to sort incoming calls.
Week 3 — CAD & Multi-Tasking (2 modules) — An overview of Computer-Aided Dispatch systems, and techniques for multi-tasking under sustained call volume.
Week 4 — Stress Management & Capstone (2 modules) — Stress management strategies for dispatchers, followed by a simulated call-taking certification exam.
Week 1 — Listening & Triage (3 modules) — Active-listening and structured questioning technique, caller de-escalation, and medical, fire, and law triage protocols.
Week 2 — Difficult Calls & Capstone (2 modules) — Handling difficult and high-stress calls, followed by a capstone call-simulation exercise.
Week 1 — Data Entry & Standards (3 modules) — CAD data entry best practices, common data quality errors, and the reporting standards used to track response metrics.
Week 2 — Audits & Capstone (2 modules) — Building data quality checklists, followed by a capstone CAD audit exercise.
Week 1 — From Dispatcher to Supervisor (3 modules) — The transition into a supervisory role, scheduling and shift-coverage basics, and performance coaching fundamentals.
Week 2 — Quality Assurance & Policy (2 modules) — The quality assurance review process, and enforcing policy consistently with clear documentation.
Week 3 — Conflict Resolution & Capstone (2 modules) — Conflict resolution techniques for supervisors, followed by a capstone supervisory scenario review.
Week 1 — Staffing Models (2 modules) — Minimum staffing calculations and staffing models grounded in current fatigue and shift-scheduling research.
Week 2 — Budget & Technology (2 modules) — Budget planning for communications centers, and technology and equipment lifecycle planning.
Week 3 — Workforce Strategy (3 modules) — Recruitment and retention strategy, workforce wellness programs, and interagency service agreements.
Week 4 — Capstone Staffing Plan (2 modules) — A communications center staffing plan project, with peer review and presentation.
ICS-300 through advanced Command and General Staff coursework, plus Unified Command and All-Hazards IMT preparation.
ICS-100 and ICS-200 are free, self-paced courses offered directly by FEMA's Emergency Management Institute. We pick up the track at ICS-300, which — like ICS-400 — FEMA does not offer as independent study and requires a live instructor.
Case-study driven instruction for supervisors who manage expanding incidents, covering organizational growth, transfer of command, and incident action planning.
Prepares senior officers to serve in Command and General Staff positions on complex incidents and area command structures, built entirely around scenario discussion.
A seminar-style course on negotiating and operating a Unified Command structure across police, fire, EMS, and emergency management stakeholders.
Tabletop-based preparation for serving on a Type 3 All-Hazards Incident Management Team, covering planning cycles, briefings, and after-action reporting.
Don't see your role?
All 29 MCFRI courses across Incident Command, Fire Officer, Communications & PIO, Emergency Management, and Dispatch & Supervision are searchable in one place.
Fire Officer I through IV, plus instructor and fire investigation coursework, built for company officers moving into command.
The foundational company officer course: supervising a crew, basic personnel issues, and the administrative and leadership fundamentals of a first-line fire officer.
Advances company officers into budget input, performance evaluation, community relations, and pre-incident planning responsibilities.
Case-study seminar for battalion and division-level officers covering multi-company supervision, resource allocation, and labor-management relations.
A capstone leadership seminar for chief officers — strategic planning, organizational change, and policy development at the department level.
Covers lesson planning, adult learning theory, and classroom delivery techniques for fire service personnel who teach or evaluate other responders.
Origin and cause determination, scene preservation, and report writing fundamentals for officers who are first on scene before an investigator arrives.
Don't see your role?
All 29 MCFRI courses across Incident Command, Fire Officer, Communications & PIO, Emergency Management, and Dispatch & Supervision are searchable in one place.
From PIO fundamentals to multi-agency Joint Information Center command — message discipline for every stage of a crisis.
The foundational course for new PIOs: writing for the media, message mapping, and the legal basics of public records and public information requests.
Scenario-based training in delivering high-stakes information under pressure, including on-camera technique, message discipline, and audience trust-building.
Tabletop exercises in standing up and running a Joint Information Center, coordinating multiple agency spokespeople around one shared message.
A leadership-level capstone for senior PIOs, built around a sustained multi-day tabletop exercise commanding communications across multiple jurisdictions.
Monitoring tools, platform-specific posting strategy, and a practical framework for identifying and countering misinformation during a live event.
Builds the interagency messaging templates and approval workflows that let multiple PIOs publish one aligned message under a Joint Information System.
Don't see your role?
All 29 MCFRI courses across Incident Command, Fire Officer, Communications & PIO, Emergency Management, and Dispatch & Supervision are searchable in one place.
EOC management, continuity planning, hazard mitigation, and HSEEP exercise design for emergency management professionals.
An introduction to the four phases of emergency management — mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery — and the laws and frameworks that govern them.
Tabletop-driven instruction in EOC activation, staffing, and the planning P — for the personnel who staff and lead an EOC during an activation.
A practical workshop in building and testing a Continuity of Operations Plan so essential government and agency functions survive a disruption.
Covers hazard identification, vulnerability assessment, and the FEMA-aligned planning process behind a jurisdiction’s Hazard Mitigation Plan.
Trains emergency managers to design, conduct, and evaluate exercises using the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) methodology.
A director-level seminar on strategic planning, interagency governance, and policy advocacy for the most senior emergency management leadership roles.
Don't see your role?
All 29 MCFRI courses across Incident Command, Fire Officer, Communications & PIO, Emergency Management, and Dispatch & Supervision are searchable in one place.
The POST-certified dispatcher Basic Course through staffing and management training for communications center supervisors.
The POST-certified Basic Course for new public safety dispatchers, covering call-taking, radio procedure, and the legal framework of 911 dispatch.
Active-listening, structured questioning, and triage protocol fundamentals for taking and prioritizing emergency calls under pressure.
Best practices for Computer-Aided Dispatch data entry, quality control, and the reporting standards agencies rely on for accurate response metrics.
Prepares senior dispatchers for their first supervisory role: scheduling, performance coaching, quality assurance review, and policy enforcement.
A management-level course in staffing models, fatigue and shift-scheduling research, and budget planning for 911 communications center managers.
Don't see your role?
All 29 MCFRI courses across Incident Command, Fire Officer, Communications & PIO, Emergency Management, and Dispatch & Supervision are searchable in one place.
MCFRI is a training institute dedicated to the leadership, command, and communications education of fire officers, public information officers, emergency managers, and 911 dispatch professionals. Courses are delivered as structured classroom instruction, live online instruction, or both, so agencies of any size can send personnel without taking apparatus or staffing offline.
MCFRI was founded in 2006 as a focused public information and communications academy. Over time, the catalog grew to cover the full Incident Command System progression, the complete Fire Officer I–IV leadership ladder, Emergency Management coursework aligned to FEMA and HSEEP standards, and a Dispatch & Supervision track built around California's POST-certified Basic Course. Today the Institute offers 27 courses across those five tracks — alongside the free, federally-run ICS-100 and ICS-200 prerequisites.
The Institute is directed by a Joint Steering Board composed of representatives from partner fire, law enforcement, dispatch, and emergency management agencies. The Board sets curriculum priorities and approves new courses as they're added to the catalog.
Every course runs as instructor-led classroom sessions, live online sessions, or a hybrid of both — case studies, tabletop exercises, scenario-based discussion, and guided practicums. Instructors are working or recently retired officers, PIOs, emergency managers, and communications center supervisors who teach the job the way they actually did it.
5131 Darrah Rd, Mariposa, CA 95338 — classroom instruction at our administrative offices, with every course also available live online.
Reach our admissions coordinators directly, or submit an inquiry below for individual seats, agency cohorts, or a custom course schedule.
We accept agency purchase orders, municipal training vouchers, and state mutual-aid training allocations.
Tell us what course and timeline you're working with — we'll follow up within two business days.
Every classroom and online cohort scheduled through 2028. Click any course on the calendar for full details and to start an enrollment inquiry.
Dot color marks the discipline. A course start date is shown on the day its cohort begins — click it for duration, location, and seats remaining.
MCFRI courses are designed around these external standards. These are the official agencies for certification and curriculum — not us — so always confirm current requirements directly with them.
The national curriculum behind NIMS/ICS. ICS-100 and ICS-200 are available here as free, self-paced Independent Study courses.
training.fema.govThe California Incident Command Certification System (CICCS) — a joint OSFM / Cal OES program our command curriculum is aligned to.
firescope.caloes.ca.gov/trainingCoordinates state and national emergency management training for emergency managers and government leaders.
caloes.ca.govThe Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program methodology referenced throughout our EM-310 exercise design course.
fema.gov/.../hseepThe division that runs California's fire training and education system, including officer certification tracks.
osfm.fire.ca.govCertification tracks for Fire Officer, Instructor, and Fire Investigator — aligned with NFPA professional qualifications.
osfm.fire.ca.gov/.../professional-certifications