05/22/2026
During the Commission meeting held May 5th and May 6th in Gatlinburg, the Commission discussed the accuracy of the HMA and HMO tests. Specifically, the concern was whether the test banks were validated out of the Jones & Bartlett, Hazardous Materials Awareness and Operations, 4th Edition textbook, or the Fundamentals of Firefighter Skills and Hazardous Materials Response 5th edition textbook. Up to this point, the Firefighting Commission has listed both textbooks for the certifications on our website.
We have conducted a thorough review of the tests, including consultation with the publisher, and have determined that the test banks that were validated, are the same test banks for both textbooks. This means that either textbook will work for firefighters who are studying for the tests and/or approved in-house courses that use the textbooks for their curriculum. The primary change between the two is that the 5th edition book incorporated the NFPA 1010 changes for Firefighter I and II. Since the NFPA cycle for hazardous materials and firefighter I and II qualifications offset, both textbooks adhere to the NFPA 470, Hazardous Materials/Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Standard for Responders, 2022 edition.
We did identify one version of the tests that had a small number of questions that we weren’t able to correlate to the test bank. We have replaced these questions with questions from the validated test bank and are in the process of outfitting our proctors with the correct version.
You’ll notice that our website will list the associated textbooks for these disciplines as, “Jones & Bartlett Hazardous Materials Awareness and Operations, 4th edition or Fundamentals of Firefighter Skills and Hazardous Materials Response, 5th edition” to reflect the results of our internal review.
Thank you for the flexibility and patience while we worked through this. As always, feel free to reach out to the Commission if there are any questions or concerns.
