Sean C. Morgan
Seventeen members of the Sweet Home High School Forestry Club spent three days last week on forest land off McDowell Creek Road going through much the same training as wildland firefighters do when they train for fire season.
“We’re out here learning about what they do out in the field,” said Kristen Tolle. During fire school on Thursday, they worked on hose lays and mop-up.
They also learned how to dig fire lines, drip torches, use of water and Mark III pumps, said Macy Cockrell.
They set “fuses,” something like a flare, to set up landing zones for helicopters, said Curtis Froman.
Learning how to fight fires was just part of the training though.
“The ultimate goal is to have fun and make new friends,” Froman said.
It also gave students a glimpse of the job and a chance to find out if it’s something they might like to pursue as a career, said Sequoia Stroup. She also enjoyed “seeing new faces and getting to know what they’re about.”
Throughout fire school, the students participated in several competitions, such as hose lay, Stroup said.
They also had to put out fuses, a sort of target practice, Cockrell said.
The students are interested in different careers. Tolle plans to study forestry engineering, while Stroup and Cockrell are interested in nursing, and the fire school has piqued their interest in working around wildland fires or working on an air ambulance helicopter.
Sweet Home students were split up into four groups, with members of clubs from five other schools. About 80 students attended. Up to 150 students have attended the fire school in previous years. Participating schools included Sweet Home, Philomath, Knappa, Scio, Bonanza and Owen Sabin Skill Center.
The students were split into different teams to help them learn to work with each other, getting them outside their comfort zones to work with strangers, said Coordinator Forrest Chambers, a paramedic and firefighter with the Eugene Fire Department. Working together by day, they got a chance to socialize at Camp Tadmor at night.
“Essentially, it’s to train the kids how to be wildland firefighters,” Chambers said. The program follows closely the state fire school program, like the one held in June in Sweet Home.
The students started at noon on Wednesday and finished at 8:30 p.m. Thursday; they were busy from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., and Friday, fire school ran from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“We’re trying to cram it all into three days,” Chambers said. It helps give these students a leg up if they decide to go into wildland firefighting. “Traditionally, there’s been a lot of people hired out of youth programs. You don’t get this very often, where you have the classroom and hands-on.”
“Our goal is to expose our kids to another field of industry here in town,” said SHHS Forestry Club Adviser Dustin Nichol. They are introduced to what the Oregon Department of Forestry does, and regardless of making a career of it, they’re exposed to a great summer job they can do while attending college.
“The other part of this is life experience,” Nichol said, referring to mixing the students into different teams.
“It’s creating a memory along with an opportunity,” Nichol said. Also having professionals work with the students helps affirm what teachers are saying in the classrooms.
The program is put together by the high school forestry programs and the Future Farmers of America, Chambers said. They received help from the Oregon Department of Forestry and Cascade Timber Consulting, which provided land for field activities.
Last year was the first time the event was held in the Sweet Home area. Before that, it was held at Camp Cascade in the Mehama area.
The program moved to Sweet Home because of the support of the landowners and Department of Forestry, Chambers said.
Chambers has been involved for 25 years, he said. He attended when he was in high school and then went to fire school and graduated. He spent 12 years with the ODF. When he completed his paramedic certification, he went to work in Eugene.
Nichol put together the program this year, Chambers said, while Chambers served as coordinator during the event.
“He’s put a lot of hours in,” Chambers said. He probably put in 100 hours in the past six months and during spring break preparing for the school.
Nichol wanted to recognize ODF employes Chad Calderwood, Neil Miller and Kimi Jewell of the ODF Sweet Home Unit, South Cascade District, and Keith Teague of the Eastern Lane Unit, South Cascade District.
He also thanked CTC, D&S Logging, Rice Logging, THI and Burke Logging, who all supported the school with by donating equipment, land or money.