Wolfeboro Deputy Fire Chief Completes National Fire Academy Executive Fire Officer Program

Wolfeboro Deputy Fire Chief Thomas J. Zotti entered an elite corps of less then 3,000 graduates upon completing the four year Executive Fire Officer Program (EFOP) at the U.S. Fire Administration’s National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Maryland this spring.  The EFOP is designed to provide senior officers with the ability to transform fire and emergency services organizations from being reactive to proactive; with an emphasis on leadership development, prevention, and risk reduction;  to conduct and apply research to their departments;  and to enhance their executive-level knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to lead achieve needed changes.

The EFOP consists of four bachelors degree and/or graduate level courses two weeks in length spanning a four year period.  An equally important part of the EFOP are the four Applied Research Projects (ARP) relating  to their fire department required in addition to the four core courses. 

The first course “Executive Development”  focuses on developing effective management and leadership skills for fire officers as they make the transition from manager to senior executive.  The second course “Executive Analysis of Community Risk Reduction” focuses on the executive fire officer as the leader in community risk reduction, assessing community risk, developing a draft plan for a local risk reduction initiative and applying change management models and addressing organizational politics.  The third course “ Executive Analysis of Fire Service Operations in Emergency Management” is a comprehensive  course covering among other topics risk assessment , incident  documentation, media/political considerations, standards, legal mandates, capability assessment, damage assessment, emergency operations, integrated Emergency Management System, Emergency Operations Center and emergency operational readiness. The final course “Executive Leadership” emphasizes the practical application of the skills learned in the prior courses.  The applied research projects of each student are archived for distribution  at http://www.usfa.fema.gov/lrc.