Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
While the weather warms, vegetation dries and the fire season gets underway, new firefighters were busy last week learning how to fight this summer’s fires.
In Sweet Home, 200 firefighters from the U.S. Forest Service, Oregon Department of Forestry, Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife trained at a fire camp set up at Sweet Home High School.
The fire camp was set up similarly to the camps where firefighters will be based as they combat wilderness fires this summer. It was led by experienced firefighters from a variety of agencies, including
They spent Monday through Thursday in classrooms, and on Friday they experienced live firefighting on Cascade Timber Consulting land off 50th Avenue just outside Sweet Home.
During the classroom training, firefighters learned to use the tools of the trade, Forest Service spokeswoman Judy McHugh said. They also studied fire behavior and weather among other topics.
About 100 were busy earning their first level of certification while another 100 attended part time to earn advanced certification and receive training in leadership, advanced fire behavior and advanced fire investigation.
On Friday the firefighters spent most of the day at the end of 50th Avenue, where they got a chance to apply some of the things they learned during the week.
For some, like Clint Moran of Sweet Home, it was a chance to share experience he’s gained over the last five years of working for ODF during the summer.
“It’s a refresher for me and a chance to train the new guys, to help them out,” said Moran, 22, who is a software engineering student at Oregon Institute of Technology. He said he expects this will be his last season on the fire crew.
This is Adam Hummer’s second season and he said the training helped him further his knowledge, especially after a fairly tame fire season in Sweet Home last summer.
“I took some leadership classes so I can fill leadership roles, digging trail and stuff,” said Hummer, who is interested in being a firefighter and recently completed emergency medical technician training at Linn-Benton Community College.
Other Sweet Home-based ODF firefighters, most of them local graduates, were Sara Brocard, Staci Grove, Kyle Temple and Tina O’Donnell, whose husband Tim is a teacher at Sweet Home Junior High. O’Donnell will staff the Green Peter fire lookout station this summer.
Temple, a student at Southern Oregon State University, has worked for three years as a Sweet Home-based firefighter. He said the fire school is good for everyone.
“It’s good, practical experience for first-year people, but even people like me take classes to learn how to be a crew boss, to learn how to run a crew,” he said. “It lets (rookies) in on a fairly controlled environment, gets them used to smoke and heat.”
The fire school was the eighth time the interagency effort was held locally. Approximately 30 agency officials operated the school, one of several throughout the state.
Fire school roughly marks the beginning of the fire season. Regulated use of local forests started Wednesday morning, and with July 4 coming up, McHugh warned people to “leave the fireworks at home.”
Even the possession of fireworks in the forests is illegal, McHugh said, and campfires should be drowned and completely out before being left unattended.
Regulated use affects the Quartzville Corridor and Department of Forestry protected lands, Forest Protection Supervisor Jim Basting said. That means campfires must be in designated areas or in fire rings along the Quartzville Corridor.
The following are regulated use restrictions:
– Smoking is prohibited while traveling, except in vehicles on improved roads, in boats on the water and on sand or gravel bars that lie between water and high water marks that are free of vegetation.
– Open fires are prohibited, including campfires, charcoal fires, cooking fires and warming fires, except at designated locations. Portable cooking stoves using liquefied or bottled fuels are allowed.
– Chainsaw use is prohibited in areas subject to Industrial Fire Precaution Level III and IV.
– Chainsaw use is prohibited, between the hours of 1 p.m. and 8 p.m., in areas subject to Industrial Fire Precaution Level I and II. Chainsaw use is permitted at all other hours, if the following firefighting equipment is present with each operating saw: One axe, one shovel and one operational 8-ounce or larger fire extinguisher. In addition, a fire watch is required at least one hour following the use of each saw.
– Use of motorized vehicles, including motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles, is prohibited except on improved roads or for the commercial culture and harvest of agricultural crops.
– All motor vehicles must be equipped with one gallon of water or one operational 2 1/2-pound or larger fire extinguisher, one axe and one shovel, except when traveling on state and county roads. All-terrain vehicles and motorcycles must be equipped with one operational 2 1/2-pound or larger fire extinguisher, except when traveling on state and county roads.
Use of fireworks is prohibited.
– Cutting, grinding and welding of metal is prohibited between the hours of 1 p.m. and 8 p.m. Cutting, grinding and welding of metal is permitted at all other hours if conducted in a cleared area and if a water supply is present.
– Use of exploding targets is prohibited.
– Mowing of dried and cured grass with power driven equipment is prohibited between the hours of 1 p.m. and 8 p.m. except for the commercial culture and harvest of agricultural crops.
– Blasting is prohibited, between the hours of 1 p.m. and 8 p.m. Blasting is permitted at all other hours, if conducted in a cleared area and if a water supply is present.
The State Forester or an authorized representative may, in writing, approve a modification or waiver of these requirements.
These restrictions shall remain in effect until replaced, suspended, or terminated by an additional proclamation of the State Forester or an authorized representative.
For more information, contact the Oregon Department of Forestry Sweet Home Unit at 367-6108.
– Scott Swanson contributed to this article.