With increasing and distressing frequency, high-profile violent incidents have put the spotlight on the need to train the fire service to render service in these situations while protecting firefighters to the best of our ability. The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation has been at the forefront of this effort for more than a decade, authoring and promoting Firefighter Life Safety Initiative 12, which states: "National protocols for response to violent incidents should be developed and championed." The NFFF has developed this self-paced program on the Fire Hero Learning Network as an important piece of that national response to violent incidents.

This self-paced program focuses on firefighter health and safety within the context of responding to known violent incidents and in cases where an incident turns violent during response. It focuses on presenting the broad firefighter health and safety principles that should guide individual jurisdictions in crafting their own specific violent incident response policies, standard operating procedures, and training rotations.