Fayetteville State University
Department: Natural Sciences
Program: Fire Science
Course Descriptions
Course Descriptions
FSCN 322 (3-3-0) Fire Investigation: A course
intended to provide the student with advanced
technical knowledge on rules of law, fire scene
analysis, fire behavior, evidence collection and
preservation, scene documentation, case
preparation and testifying.
FSCN 377 (3-3-0) Fire-Related Human
Behavior: An exploration of the dynamics of
human behavior in fire incidents. The functions
and implementation of prevention practices,
program, codes, and ordinances are stressed.
The concepts of risk, personal invulnerability,
role, and group dynamics are examined in
relation to design aspects of buildings and
mitigation of the effects of fire on modern
society. Discussion deals with proper ways of
conducting postfire interviews and emphasizes
the psychological effects of communications
during emergencies.
Course Objectives
Artifacts/Evidence
FSCN 400 (3-3-0) Political and Legal
Foundations of Fire Protection: An
examination of the legal, political, and social
aspects of the government's role in public
safety, including the American legal system, fire
department operations, employment and
personnel issues, fire officials┐ roles, and
legislative and political influence.
FSCN 401 (3-3-0) Fire Protection and
Structure and System Design: This course
examines design principles involved in
structural fire protection and automatic
suppression systems, including fire resistance
and endurance, flame spread evaluation, smoke
control, alarm systems, sprinkler innovations,
evaluation of sprinkler system designs, and
specialized suppression systems.
FSCN 402 (3-3-0) Managerial Issues in an All
Hazards Environment: This course examines
regulatory issues, hazard analysis, multiagency
contingency planning, response personnel,
multiagency response resources, agency
policies, procedures and implementation, public
education and emergency information systems,
health and safety, command post dynamics,
strategic and tactical considerations, recovery
and termination procedures, and program
evaluation.
FSCN 406 (3-3-0) Technologically Enhanced
Fire and EMS Services: This course examines
the current and potential application of
information technology in the emergency
services. Focus will be on how this technology
can enhance service delivery and personnel
safety. Emphasis will be on the utilization of
GIS capability and other information
applications to improve the amount of decisionmaking data available to firefighters which will
increase effectiveness.
FSCN 412 (3-3-0) Advanced Fire
Administration: This course examines
organizational and leadership tools for fire
service administrators, including community
approaches to administration, core skills,
planning and implementation, leading change,
and community management.
FSCN 421 (3-3-0) Incendiary Fire Analysis
and Investigation: This course examines
technical, investigative, legal, and managerial
approaches to the arson problem, including
principles of incendiary fire analysis and
detection, environmental and psychological
factors of arson, gang-related arson, legal
considerations and trial preparations, managing
the fire investigation unit, intervention and
mitigation strategies, and shaping the future.
Prerequisite: FSCN 322 And PHYS 390
FSCN 422 (3-3-0) Applications of Fire
Research: An examination of the rationale for
conducting fire research, various fire protection
research activities, and research applications,
including fire test standards and codes,
structural fire safety, automatic detection and
suppression, life safety, and firefighter health
and safety.
FSCN 430 (3-3-0) Fire Service Personnel
Administration: Basic and advanced concepts
and processes of designing, implementing, and
administering the personnel functions of fire
service organizations. Emphasis is placed on
human resource planning, job classification, job
analysis, equal opportunity organizations and
resources, affirmative action, recruitment,
retention, development, performance evaluation,
and assessment centers.
FSCN 431 (3-3-0) Analytical Application to
Public Fire Protection: This course examines
tools and techniques of rational decision-making
in fire departments, including databases,
statistics, probability, decision analysis, utility
modeling, resource allocation, cost-benefit
analysis, and linear programming.
FSCN 441 (3-3-0) Topics in Fire Department
Management: A course designed to cover
contemporary topics of interest in the area of
fire department administration.
FSCN 490 (6-0-0) Fire Service Internship: An
experience that offers an opportunity to apply
content learned in the classroom to complete a
project in management or investigation in the
workplace.