Earn Your Florida Incident Safety Officer Certification

So you’ve chosen a career in the Florida fire service. You’ve probably done so out of a sense of duty and service—to your community as well as to your loved ones. A firefighter career carries a great deal of responsibility for serving your community, and in return it gives you a rich, rewarding, and varied list of career paths to choose from to support your family.

Advancing in your career as a firefighter is a big part of remaining engaged with the job. It also improves your ability to choose where you work, and to increase your potential pay scale throughout your career.

One of the key elements of firefighter career advancement studies through Couch Courses is that our work is designed to provide you with the tools you need to excel at your job.  Couch Courses also familiarizes you with the workings of Florida firefighting job requirements and expectations, and how the system works for career firefighters.

Completion of the Florida Incident Safety Officer course is a clear step toward leadership positions within the fire service. NOTE: This course is blended and combines online learning with in-person course requirements.

What Does a Florida Firefighter Incident Safety Officer (ISO) Do?

An Incident Safety Officer, or ISO, is a member of the firefighter command team tasked specifically with optimizing the safety of other firefighters on the job, and with mitigating risks so that firefighters are available to protect and aid the public.

An ISO should be part of the development and implementation of an Incident Action Plan (IAP) comprising practical approaches to strategy, tactics, resources, risk management and estimated outcomes. The ISO will then be responsible for monitoring this IAP with regards to the responsibilities of the firefighters on their team, and to help ensure that emergencies can be managed both effectively and safely.

In short, the Fire Incident Safety Officer carries the weighty responsibility of the safety of other firefighters.

Florida Incident Safety Officer Course Requirements

The Couch Courses Florida ISO course is 45 hours of blended learning. It requires students to complete online learning coursework as well as in-class attendance for the final presentation. The final presentation time and date is ultimately determined by the course instructor; find the current schedule on the Couch Courses event page.

Students are required to use the course textbook Fire Department Incident Safety Officer, 3rd Edition (2015) (Publisher: Jones & Bartlett Learning; ISBN-978128404195-8).

You will need access to a computer with high-speed internet to complete this course.

Fire ISO Course Topics

Through the Couch Courses ISO study, you will learn some key tools for “reading” buildings during a fire emergency, including building codes and regulations, smoke and hazardous energy, triggers and traps, and how these hazards can be bypassed, neutralized or otherwise mitigated for firefighters. You’ll also be familiarized with safety concerns during specialized emergency situations like wildfires, hazmat incidents, and technical rescues.

From a job responsibility standpoint, the ISO course covers both Florida and national information regarding topics like building regulations and code laws, developing and implementing ISO procedures, and the Fire Safety Officer’s role during and after an incident.

From a career standpoint, you’ll even learn about professional development.

ISO Course Certifications

Completion of the Couch Courses Florida ISO course will earn you 45 hours of Continuing Education Units (CEU) toward Fire Service Instructor, Fire Safety Inspector, and Fire Code Administrator. The Florida ISO job requirements include this course as well as the Courage to Be Safe half-hour online training module before applying for the state certification.

This course also converts to a three-hour college class (program electives/open electives) for Columbia Southern University.

Florida Firefighter Career Advancement

Ultimately, the Florida ISO course provides invaluable opportunities for advancing your career within the Florida fire service—while gaining tools and responsibilities to better serve your fellow firefighters as well as your community.