In 2004, senior officers of the Orange County Fire Rescue Department realized that a significant loss of experienced command officers would occur during ensuing years and commissioned the development of an incident command school. What was developed was a multi-player computer simulation program and curriculum based on exercising standard operating procedures, reading smoke, integrating the National Incident Management System (NIMS), and a review of tactics and strategies. The problem is that the Orange County Fire Rescue Department (OCFRD) does not have a validated training curriculum to improve command decision making. The purpose of this research was to determine a pathway to improve decision making capabilities of Orange County Fire Rescue's incident commanders.

Using descriptive research, an extensive literature review, survey of OCFRD command officers, and a questionnaire of several subject matter experts this project answered the following questions: 1. How do incident commanders make decisions during emergency operations? 2. Do applied decision making models appropriate for emergency operations exist? 3. Are there practical training approaches to improve decision making? Results determined experienced fire officers make decisions intuitively based on experience and training, that there are numerous decision making models which can be applied to incident command, and simulation and tactical decision games are useful tools to improve decision making if properly designed.Recommendations include convening a task force of subject matter experts from academia, simulation/training, other stakeholders, and command officers to develop objective centered curriculum based on improving pattern recognition, problem solving, and situational awareness skills, as well as, institutionalizing the use of specific decision making models, debriefings, mnemonic phrases, and checklists as aids to improve incident command decision making.