 It was purchased by the U.S. Government in 1979 for use as the NETC.In 2008, the National Fire Academy trained over 122,000 first responders from all 50 U.S. states.In 1971, President Richard Nixon assembled a 20-member blue-ribbon panel of experts in the field of fire protection to study the country’s alarming fire problem and the related needs of the American fire services.