About
30 years ago, a group of emergency responders from varied response disciplines, founded the Colorado Wildfire Academy and Great Plains Wildfire College realizing the need to provide National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG), Incident Command System (ICS), and other quality emergency management courses.
Since its inception these colleges and academies have delivered training to over 18,000 students. After the events of September 11th, 2001, the board has constantly modified the curriculum to meet the ever changing requirements of fire, emergency medical, law enforcement, and other emergency management agencies and personnel. The value of incident management training has been reinforced numerous times with unprecedented fire seasons, the Columbia Shuttle Recovery and Hurricane’s Ivan, Katrina and Rita respectively.
In 2007, to address the future training needs of emergency management, the board voted to adopt a single moniker to express our long-term commitment to a diverse curriculum of quality training. Therefore, the official name was changed to read the Colorado Wildland Fire and Incident Management Academy (CWFIMA) and it will become the over–all umbrella of the Academy and College. We believe to sustain the quality and diversity of education, the name change to CWFIMA would more correctly describe the basis of our updated mission.
Month/Year Location No. of Classes Duration No. of Participants
June 1994 Black Forest 5 3 days 90
June 1995 Eagle 10 5 days 225
June1996 Buena Vista 20 6 days 600
June 1997 Leadville 29 7 days 700
June 1998 Gunnison 29 7 days 775
June 1999 Cortez 33 7 days 900
June 2000 Salida 35 7 days 860
June 2001 Montrose 49 7 days 1160
June 2002 Alamosa 44 7 days 1005
June 2003 Alamosa 41 7 days 971
June 2004 Carbondale 43 7 days 1078
June 2005 Montrose 44 7 days 840
June 2006 Cortez 43 7 days 823
June 2007 Alamosa 39 7 days 809
June 2008 Gunnison 37 7 days 720
June 2009 Montrose 32 7 days 648
June 2010 Canon City 30 7 days 525
June 2011 Frisco 30 7 days 474
June 2012 Alamosa 27 7 days 441
June 2013 Montrose 28 7 days 412
June 2014 New Castle 34 7 days 577
June 2015 Salida 26 7 days 440
June 2016 Gunnison 26 7 days 478
June 2017 Alamosa 29 7 days 418
June 2018 Salida 29 7 days 484
June 2019 Montrose 29 7 days 532
June 2020 New Castle Cancelled
June 2021 New Castle 16 5 days 269
June 2022 Salida 20 5 days 311
June 2023 Alamosa 25 5 days 369