OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE ON THE CANCELLATION OF NFA CLASSES
March 12, 2025
The Maryland State Firefighters Association (MSFA) is deeply concerned about the impact of
canceling emergency and disaster training at the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg and joins
other state and national organizations in registering our dismay. This unexpected action jeopardizes
the communities we serve as well as our Nation’s firefighters.
Every state in the union has benefited from free classes that train fire officers, fire service
instructors, technical professionals, and people from allied sectors. It’s a safety framework ensuring
that cutting-edge protocols and know-how reach beyond our big cities.
Shutting down these instructor-led and online classes has a less obvious downside. It will stop
career and volunteer fire service members from getting national certifications – mandatory
certifications – to perform their jobs.
In an age where recruitment and retention keeps most departments understaffed, this new
uncertainty creates even more fractures on our already stressed fire and EMS systems.
We need your help to get the word out.
If you’ve taken NFA classes, please take this survey from the Congressional Fire Services Institute.
Your feedback can provide insight for lawmakers to reconsider taking such drastic measures.
Abruptly canceling NFA training isn’t the administration’s only impact to the fire service. The
MSFA stands with NIOSH, the National Firefighters Cancer Registry, and the Firefighter Fatality
Investigation and Prevention Program, who have also felt the sting of unforeseen cuts to their
programs.
Stay strong. Stay vigilant. Please join us in contacting Maryland’s Congressional Delegation. We
need their help.
Hurting the fire service weakens emergency and disaster response, and leaves vulnerable the very
communities we are sworn to protect.
