Firefighting Tactics and Strategies II

Course Description

FFP2811 – Firefighting Tactics and Strategies II is a 3-credit, 45-contact-hour sophomore-level course in Florida's Fire Science Technology curriculum and a required component of the Florida Fire Officer II series. It extends single-company tactics into the command of multiple companies at larger and more complex incidents.

The distinction matters. Tactics I addresses what a company does at a fire; this course addresses what a commander does when several companies, and often several agencies, are working the same incident. The subject is strategy — the incident-level plan — and the command structure that executes it.

Content covers multiple company operations and the coordination of simultaneous tactical assignments; logistics — staging, water supply, apparatus placement, air management, and rehabilitation of crews; mutual aid and the use of resources from other jurisdictions; and conflagration control, the containment of fires that have exceeded normal suppression capacity.

The organizing framework is the Incident Command System under NIMS: command establishment and transfer, division and group assignment, span of control, the incident action plan, and the accountability systems that track where every firefighter is. Firefighter safety and survival is central rather than adjacent — rapid intervention crews, mayday procedures, personnel accountability reports, and the command decisions that determine whether an offensive interior attack is defensible.

Instruction leans heavily on case study, particularly NIOSH line-of-duty death investigations, where command failures are documented in detail.

Offered at approximately 19 Florida institutions including Broward, College of Central Florida, Daytona State, Eastern Florida State, Florida Gateway, Florida SouthWestern, Gulf Coast State, Hillsborough, Indian River State, Palm Beach State, St. Petersburg, State College of Florida, South Florida State, and Valencia, alongside regional fire academies and Florida International University.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Develop an incident strategy based on size-up, risk assessment, and available resources.
• Establish, transfer, and terminate incident command consistent with NIMS.
• Organize an incident using divisions, groups, and branches while maintaining span of control.
• Develop and communicate an incident action plan.
• Coordinate multiple company operations and assign simultaneous tactical objectives.
• Determine offensive, defensive, and transitional attack strategies and justify the decision.
• Manage incident logistics including staging, water supply, apparatus placement, and air management.
• Apply personnel accountability systems and conduct personnel accountability reports.
• Deploy and manage a rapid intervention crew.
• Respond to a mayday and manage a firefighter emergency.
• Apply mutual aid agreements and integrate resources from other agencies.
• Describe conflagration control strategy and large-area fire containment.
• Manage crew rehabilitation and incident-scene safety.
• Conduct post-incident analysis and identify lessons learned.

Optional Outcomes

• Describe high-rise firefighting operations and their command requirements.
• Describe wildland-urban interface operations, a significant Florida exposure.
• Describe hazardous materials incident command.
• Describe mass casualty and active assailant incident coordination.
• Describe unified command with law enforcement and EMS.
• Describe hurricane and natural disaster response operations.
• Use command simulation software.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• Strategy versus tactics — incident-level planning and its relationship to company assignments.
• Size-up and risk assessment — building, occupancy, fire conditions, resources, and the risk-benefit decision.
• Incident Command System — establishment, transfer, divisions and groups, span of control, and command staff.
• Incident action planning — objectives, strategy, tactics, and communication.
• Multiple company operations — coordinating simultaneous assignments and preventing freelancing.
• Offensive, defensive, and transitional attack — selection criteria and the decision to withdraw.
• Logistics — staging, water supply, apparatus placement, air management, and resource ordering.
• Accountability — personnel accountability systems, PAR, and tracking crews.
• Rapid intervention — RIC deployment, readiness, and activation.
• Mayday management — recognition, response, and command of a firefighter emergency.
• Mutual aid — agreements, integration of outside resources, and interoperability.
• Conflagration control — large-area fire, exposure protection, and containment strategy.
• Rehabilitation and scene safety — crew rotation, medical monitoring, and the safety officer role.
• Post-incident analysis — structured review and organizational learning.

Optional Topics

• High-rise operations.
• Wildland-urban interface.
• Hazardous materials command.
• Mass casualty and active assailant response.
• Unified command with law enforcement and EMS.
• Hurricane and disaster operations.
• Command simulation exercises.

Resources & Tools

• Fire Officer's Handbook of Tactics (Norman), Fire Engineering — a standard in command instruction.
• Strategy and Tactics for Structural Firefighting, IFSTA — commonly adopted in Florida programs.
• Fireground Strategies (Avillo), Fire Engineering — scenario-based and widely used.
• NFPA 1021 (Fire Officer qualifications), NFPA 1500 (occupational safety), NFPA 1561 (emergency services incident management), and NFPA 1710 (career department deployment).
• NIOSH Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program — line-of-duty death reports; the core case material.
• UL Fire Safety Research Institute — modern fire behavior research reshaping attack strategy.
• Florida State Fire College / Bureau of Fire Standards and Training — syllabus (as BFST2811) and Fire Officer certification.
• FEMA / NIMS ICS courses — ICS-200, ICS-300, and ICS-400 complement this material.
• Command simulation software and tabletop exercise materials.

Career Pathways

• Fire Captain — the rank this course most directly supports, via Fire Officer II.
• Battalion Chief — the first full incident command rank in most Florida departments.
• Fire Chief and Assistant Chief — requiring Fire Officer III/IV and typically a bachelor's degree.
• Training Officer and Safety Officer — roles built on this content.
• Emergency Management — county and municipal emergency operations, where ICS transfers directly.
• Firefighter (SOC 33-2011) — understanding command improves performance at every rank.

Florida's larger departments — Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, Jacksonville Fire and Rescue, Orange County Fire Rescue, Hillsborough County Fire Rescue, Palm Beach County Fire Rescue — run structured promotional processes in which Fire Officer II is typically required to test for captain.

Special Information

Certification value

This course is required coursework for Florida Fire Officer II certification through the Bureau of Fire Standards and Training, the credential most Florida departments require before a candidate may test for captain. The Florida State Fire College delivers identical content as BFST2811, and the course carries continuing education hours toward certificate renewal. Many students take it for promotional eligibility rather than as part of a degree.

It builds on Fire Officer I

The Fire Officer I series — including FFP2720 Company Officer and FFP2120 Building Construction for the Fire Service — is the normal prerequisite sequence. Fire Officer I addresses supervising a company; Fire Officer II addresses commanding an incident. Students should complete the Officer I series first; most programs and the certification pathway assume it.

Course-code and title variation

The course appears as FFP2811 and FFP2811C, and under the titles Firefighting Tactics and Strategies II, Firefighting Tactic and Strategy II (Florida SouthWestern), and Fire Service Strategy and Tactics II (Seminole State). Under SCNS these are equivalent at the same level; credit value is consistently 3.

Prerequisites

Prerequisites vary; verify locally. Most institutions require FFP2810 (Firefighting Tactics and Strategies I) and often current Florida firefighter certification. Because the audience is largely serving firefighters pursuing promotion, some institutions admit certified firefighters directly.

Articulation

The A.S. in Fire Science Technology is a workforce degree with statewide articulation into B.A.S. and B.S. programs in Fire and Emergency Services, Public Safety Administration, and Emergency Management — the A.S.-to-B.A.S. pathway rather than the A.A. transfer pathway.

Modern fire behavior research has changed the answers

Worth flagging for students and instructors alike: UL and NIST research over the past fifteen years has substantially revised the understanding of ventilation, flow path, and transitional attack, and some long-standing tactical doctrine has been overturned. Older textbooks and experienced officers may teach approaches the current research does not support. Students should expect the evidence base to be an active topic rather than settled, and should weight recent research accordingly.