Maine Fire Chiefs Association

MFSI works in collaboration with the Maine Fire Chiefs Association to offer programming and professional development opportunities for chief officers. For more information about the MFCA, please visit their website.

To request a delivery of one of the courses mentioned above, please use our digital Request a Course form. For more information about these offerings, please contact State Fire Instructor Geoffrey Low at glow@smccme.edu or Director Jim Graves at jgraves@smccme.edu for more information.

Maine Fire Chiefs Workshop

The Maine Fire Chiefs Association and MFSI collaborated to create the Maine Fire Chiefs Workshop in 2013. The workshop was developed with a goal to provide current, new and aspiring fire chiefs with an understanding of important considerations for the delivery of fire protection services in their community. The workshop provides information to assist in the management and leadership of a fire department in Maine.

A committee of Maine Fire Chiefs review and update the program regularly to ensure that the material presented remains accurate, current and relevant. The Workshop consists of eight modules designed to be presented through 16 hours of contact time, typically presented on a weekend. It is possible to select individual or groups of modules to be presented according to your need.

• Module 1: Legal Aspects of Fire Protection
• Module 2: Professionalism and Politics
• Module 3: Fire Chief’s Role in Leadership
• Module 4: Financial Management and Planning
• Module 5: Fire Chief’s Role in Coaching, Counseling and Correcting
• Module 6: Training, Safety and Risk Management
• Module 7: Incident Management
• Module 8: Community and Media Relations

Class size: 12 minimum/24 maximum

Disclaimer: This course was designed as an educational rather than a legal tool for current and aspiring Fire Chiefs. Course participants are strongly encouraged to contact legal counsel for your respective jurisdiction regarding legal matters.

Chief Darrell Fournier (Freeport Fire & Rescue) and Chief William St. Michel (Durham Fire & Rescue) worked in conjunction with the Maine Fire Service Institute to develop this program.  Thanks go to Chief Duane Bickford (Fairfield), Chief Roger Hooper (York County), Asst. Chief Timothy Hernandez (Addison), Chief Walter Morris (Jefferson), Chief Michael Robitaille (Yarmouth), Ret. Chief William St. Michel (Durham) and Chief Bernard Williams (Pittsfield) who collaborated and developed the current version.

New Executive Chief Officer Program

Pictured: Fire Chief Tom Higgins recognized as 2018 Chief of the Year. Credit: Evan Belanger

The New Executive Chief Officer is a program produced by the National Fire Academy intended to develop managerial, leadership, and administrative skills for first-time executive chief officers (fire chiefs) and others who desire a leadership position within their agency.  Topics include:

  • Leadership and management
  • Politics and the role of an executive chief officer
  • Planning
  • Liability and risk management
  • Financial management and capital asset planning
  • Human resources management
  • Collaboration, cooperation, and community engagement.

While topics are similar to those discussed in the Fire Chiefs Workshop, the course structure and duration allow for a much deeper dive into each subject, with stress placed on thinking at the executive level. This program is delivered in a Socratic method of instruction utilizing group dialogue, exercises, and instructor-facilitated discussion intended to get the students to explore new perspectives and ideas.  New Executive Chief Officer is delivered in either a six-day format or the more popular module format consisting of sixteen-hour classes typically offered over three weekends.