Apr 21, 2026
Fire Safety Research Institute updates tactical training course

UL Research Institutes, a global independent nonprofit safety science organization based in Evanston, Illinois, and its Fire Safety Research Institute have updated their online training course to reflect the latest research findings from full-scale burn experiments and includes three new tactical considerations.

The updated course, Search and Rescue Tactics in Single-Family Single-Story Residential Structures, is meant to build on the original Search & Rescue course by connecting fire dynamics to search, suppression and ventilation outcomes and introducing a dedicated lesson for each of the new tactical considerations, which include:

  • Provided sufficient resources, upon arrival of a fully developed fire with extension to the exterior, consider conducting simultaneous execution of exterior and interior suppression operations. The lesson focus is to explain how simultaneous interior and exterior suppression can improve conditions in post-flashover environments.
  • Consider locally ventilating compartments remote from the fire area as soon as possible. Presuppression, this would include isolation of the compartment prior to ventilation. The lesson focus is to describe why spaces remote from the fire still require ventilation before and after suppression to keep conditions survivable for potentially trapped occupants.
  • Immediately postsuppression, consider conducting hydraulic ventilation to increase the rate at which combustion gases exhaust from the structure. The lesson focus is to explain how hydraulic ventilation improves the removal of residual combustion gases after suppression and how its effectiveness increases when coordinated with horizontal ventilation or when multiple hoselines are used.

“The relaunch of this course builds on years of research and ongoing collaboration with the fire service to meet their training needs,” Meghan Maloney, manager of education and training for the Fire Safety Research Institute, said in a news release last week. “On the fireground, every decision and every minute matters, and our free training helps firefighters at all levels be better prepared to make smarter, safer decisions that influence occupant survivability and firefighter safety.”

According to UL Research Institutes, firefighters who take the course will be able to identify how isolation and ventilation impact occupant survivability and firefighter safety during various search and rescue operations; describe how the timing of suppression actions impacts search and rescue operations, occupant survivability and firefighter safety; and explain how occupant survivability might be influenced by differing removal tactics and timing.

The updated course also includes new materials for training officers and instructors, including:

Scenario-based drill sheets. Five drill sheets reinforce decision-making and coordination across search scenarios and victim removal, with clear objectives, safety reminders and adaptable variables, like visibility, fire location and occupancy status.

Time-to-task sheets. These are tracking tools to measure how long crews take to complete key actions—forcing entry, single-room search and drag-and-carry. Compare drag-and-carry results to fire service-developed benchmarks to identify training and staffing opportunities.

Continuing-the-conversation guides. These are a set of discussion guides with reflection questions designed to spark conversation after drills or at the kitchen table, helping reinforce learning and improvement retention.

“The Fire Safety Research Institute is committed to bridging the gap between research and practice, improving firefighter safety and operational effectiveness with training resources and tools for the fire service,” UL Research Institutes said. “The Fire Safety Academy offers free, research-backed and self-paced training, ensuring the fire service has access to high-quality training materials on a range of topics, including fire dynamics, firefighting tactics, firefighter health, lithium-ion batteries WUI [wildland urban interface] fires and more.”

More information on the Fire Safety Research Institute and its updated training course can be found here.