Smoke lofting into the air northeast of Sweet Home Friday morning, June 27, indicated a fire, but it was intentional – set to give students in the Mid-Willamette Valley Interagency Wildland Fire School a chance to test the classroom knowledge they’d gained over the previous five days.
The annual school, based at Sweet Home High School June 23-27, attracted a record crowd – more than 200 wildland firefighters and instructors, who converged on a logged-off slope on Green Peter Mountain, north of High Deck.
Also present was Gov. Tina Kotek, who spoke to the students before heading up to see the action on Green Peter, where she chatted with firefighters on the scene.
“Behind the value of public service lies a simple idea: to help others,” Kotek said. “Our state’s wildland firefighters set the standard for combating wildfires in Oregon, nationally, and internationally. I am inspired by their courage and commitment to safeguarding this state and our communities.”
The training culminates with a live fire exercise on Friday, June 27 just outside of Sweet Home. This presents trainees with a final challenge: applying their newly acquired skills and techniques to suppress and mop-up a real fire under controlled conditions.
“The live fire exercise provides an invaluable training experience — working in smoke, hiking through uneven terrain, and working closely with crew members to dig fireline,” said Craig Pettinger of the Oregon Department of Forestry Sweet Home District, who served as incident commander for the school. “These are all things they’ll experience this season as wildland firefighters.”
sprays water during the live fire drill Friday. Behind him are Bryce Keeney, center, and Bryce Keeney.
Students got to test out safety principles of fire training, including use of protective gear and tools and looking out for hazards.
“Safety is paramount in every aspect of wildland firefighting, and it begins with our training exercises,” Pettinger said. “Working together in a collaborative training setting improves communication and builds effective relationships for all agencies to draw upon during fire season.”
Sweet Home was represented by both ODF personnel and members of the new Wildland Fire 21 crew from Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District.
Christian Whitfield, who heads the crew, said that about 20 members were present.
Jake Hepler, one of the more senior members of the new crew, assisted with the preparation of the live fire exercise.
tank as a Weyerhaeuser helicopter flies overhead.
“We lit the piles this morning and now we’re helping them hold it, just in case anything gets outside the lines,” he said.
Not far away, Kelso Ellis, who’s working this summer with the new SHFAD wildland crew, was working with another team on maintaining a fire line.
Ellis, a 2024 SHHS graduate who volunteers with the district while attending college and is aiming to be a full-time firefighter himself, said that at fire school he learned “a lot of classroom stuff, going over safety, situational awareness” and becoming familiar with tools available to wildland firefighters.
He said he’s enjoyed working with the district’s wildland crew.
“I work with a great group of guys, we’ve got great leadership. It’s taught me a lot of new things and so I’ve gotten a lot of new experiences. And I’ve made a lot of new friends doing it.”
Chad Calderwood of the Sweet Home ODF unit, who served as operations section chief for the fire school, said it “went great.”
“We had a record number of students from the Oregon Department of Forestry, the BLM and the local fire district, which has the new hand crew coming on this year.
“So we’ve integrated some more classes for the students, especially in our what we call our ‘Level 3 advanced course.’”
As he spoke a Weyerhaeuser chopper carrying a water bucket buzzed by. Calderwood said that was part of the intensified curriculum.
“We added an aviation component,” he said. “We’re just getting everybody opportunities to get further training so then we can send some of these folks that work with helicopters out of state for assignments with aviation.”
Adrian Kast, a firefighter in the ODF Sweet Home unit was monitoring a water tank, “keeping the pump going, making sure they’ve got enough water to get this fire out,” he said.
Kast said he was able to take advantage of the higher-level instruction, which will allow him more opportunities for leadership at fires.
“I can take command of a little more complex fires,” he said.
Hepler noted that all 20 of the crew members of the SHFAD wildland crew were at the school and that opens up more opportunities for Sweet Home.
“Right now we’re able to run a 10-man mod out on fires,” he said. “We just got back from Rowena, off that fire. After this school we’ll be able to go out with the 20-person full set.”
Crew member Bryce Keeney, manning a hose nearby, said wildfires pose different challenges than what he’s experienced in fighting structure fires with SHFAD.
“It’s been a great experience,” he said of the school. “This is my first year here and I’m learning quite a bit.”
He said structure fires require all-out effort, “go-go-go, – it’s all or nothing.”
“Over here, I’ve learned about communicating with everybody, keeping an even line. That’s what works best, staying at an even pace, not getting gassed within the first 10 minutes.”
it’s been a great experience. My first year here, learning quite a bit.
Kotek told reporters it was helpful for her to be on the site and see the live fire drill in action.
“What it means to be on the ground, to see a burn, to see what it takes to mop it up, keep it tight during the fire season,” she told KMTR TV. “ Because we have hundreds, if not thousands, of folks out on the fire line during the fire season. I want to keep them safe, I got to know what they’re doing.
“And so this information for me, seeing the helicopters, it will help me advocate for more resources, really educate the public about what we’re doing here.”