National Fire Academy

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The National Fire Academy (NFA)^[1] is one of two schools in the United States operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) at the National Emergency Training Center (NETC) in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Operated and governed by the United States Fire Administration (USFA) as part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the NFA is the country’s preeminent federal fire training and education institution. The original purpose of the NFA as detailed in a 1973 report to Congress was to "function as the core of the Nation's efforts in fire service education—feeding out model programs, curricula, and information..."^[2]

The NFA shares its 107-acre (0.43 km²) Emmitsburg campus with the Emergency Management Institute (EMI) operated by the Directorate of Preparedness^[3] branch of FEMA. The campus also includes the Learning Resource Center (LRC) library, the National Fire Data Center, and the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial.^[4]

The campus was the original site of Saint Joseph’s College, a Catholic college for women from 1809 until 1973. It was purchased by the U.S. Government in 1979 for use as the NETC.

In 2008, the National Fire Academy trained over 122,000 first responders from all 50 U.S. states.^{[needs update]}