While the U.S. Fire Administration has been offering an all-hazards training curriculum since 1981, the events of Sept. 11, 2001, heightened awareness and boosted demand for both classroom and online training for the nation's emergency responders.

By the end of March 2004, nearly 620,000 had taken some type of National Fire Academy or Emergency Management Institute class since Sept. 11, according to USFA records.

Classes are conducted 47 weeks a year at the NFA and EMI, both located at the National Emergency Training Center in Maryland. EMI on-campus courses also include training offered at the Mount Weather (Va.) training facility and the Noble Training Center at Fort McClellan, Ala., a new campus that was established this year. Noble is a former Army hospital that transferred from the Department of Health and Human Services to FEMA with the creation of the DHS. Training there focuses on preparedness for mass-casualty events.

More than a quarter of a million people received NFA or EMI training in 2003. Nearly 15,000 received on-campus training, but attendance in training programs has increasingly moved off-campus.

For more information about NETC training under the USFA, visit www.usfa.fema.gov/applications/nfacsd/index.jsp.