The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has established national standards for Building Safety Evaluators which, on this website, are referred to as the NIMS Resource Types. The primary purpose of developing the NIMS Resource Types is to provide a common basis and language for emergency management offices across the country.
Below are the six NIMS Resource Types, linked to their listing in the NIMS Resource Typing Library. Each listing contains a description of the position and the minimum training requirements, professional registration and certifications, and professional experience for the position. The Post-Disaster Building Safety Evaluator position includes architects, engineers, plans examiners, building inspectors and officials, and general contractors. The minimum training requirements for all NIMS Resource Types include FEMA IS-100, IS-200, IS-300, and IS-400 courses (see the "FEMA Resources Related to WAsafe" drop-down on the Tools and Resources page).
WAsafe is not using the NIMS Resource Types. There are a number of reasons for this. In particular, WAsafe was developed for use within Washington State. Note, too, that other statewide programs for post-disaster building safety assessment volunteers do not use the NIMS Resource Types to categorize their BSEs. However, some jurisdictions may desire to use the NIMS Resource Types for requesting BSEs, or volunteers from other states may already have the qualifications for NIMS Resource Types. Hence, the downloadable mapping of NIMS Resource Types to WAsafe BSEs below was developed to assist with identifying the equivalent types.