Whether you're responding to wildfire, planning prescribed burns, or working in fuels management, understanding fire behaviour is essential for making sound decisions and communicating effectively on the ground.
After eight years of delivering this course with BC Wildfire Service, I’ve redesigned S-390 to better support the diverse realities of today’s fire practitioners, from wildfire suppression to controlled fire and FireSmart initiatives. This updated version bridges the gap between theory and practice, helping you build confidence in using the Red Book, writing burn prescriptions, predicting the primary outputs of fire behaviour and applying fire behaviour principles in real-world scenarios.
This is fire behaviour for professionals, taught by someone who works in fire.
At successful completion of this course, participants will have met the following learning outcomes under the Canadian Forest Fire Behaviour Prediction (FBP) System:
1. Identify and describe the characteristics of fuels, weather, and topography that influence fire behaviour.
2. Describe the interaction of fuels, weather, and topography on fire behaviour in wildfire, prescribed fire, fuels management and safety.
3. Interpret, communicate, apply, and document fire behaviour and weather information.
4. Demonstrate the use of weather tools and Red Book to determine primary outputs and fire behaviour predictions.
5. Recognize the FBP Fuel Type Descriptions and unique fire behaviour and effects for each type.
6. Apply the information to develop safe and effective fire management decisions, e.g., fuels management, prescribed fire, suppression.
Two days. Minimum of 12 to a maximum 20 students. Course comes with a Red Book and Student Workbook.
-
If you're involved in wildfire response, prescribed burning, or fuels management, understanding fire behaviour is central to your scope of practice. S-390 builds the technical foundation needed to assess risk, develop burn prescriptions, and make defensible, science-based decisions.
-
This course goes beyond theory. It teaches you how to use the Red Book and weather tools in real-world scenarios, improving your ability to interpret, communicate, and act on fire behaviour predictions confidently across fire types and landscapes.
It also is required for many fireline and precribed fire positions.
-
S-390 helps bridge the gap between planning and operations. You’ll learn how to apply fire behaviour knowledge to burn plan development, ignition planning, site layout, and contingency strategies, key components of professional competence and burn plan authorship.
-
This version of S-390 was redesigned for a broad range of professionals: Registered Forest Professionals, FireSmart coordinators, Indigenous fire stewards, municipal staff, and wildland fire practitioners. It’s for anyone needing to apply fire science to planning, operations, or communication. It is also for those who need to make quick decisions, create wildland fire response strategies and tactics with the ability to communicate them clearly and effectively.
-
It’s taught by a fire ecologist and burn boss with over 20 years of experience in wildland fire, not just someone trained to teach the curriculum. That means real examples, tailored instruction, and practical exercises that connect fire behaviour principles directly to the decisions you make in the field.
-
Past Hosts: Cranbrook Fire Dept., Chartwell Resource Group Ltd., Kelowna Fire Dept., Lil’wat Forestry Ventures, Williams Lake Fire Dept., Ktunaxa Nation Council.
Past Participants: Structure firefighters, resource professionals, consultants, industry foresters, FireSmart Coordinators, Emergency Response Coordinators, CRI and ISC funding specialists, guardians, wildland firefighters (Type 1, 2, and 3), burn bosses, fuels management specialists, wildfire management specialists, public information officers, EOC coordinators, post-secondary students.