A handful of volunteers from Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District took a week to boost their fire fighting skills by attending the annual Mid-Willamette Valley Interagency Wildland Fire School as they set their sights on the district’s new Wildland Fire Division program.
SHFAD volunteer Jake Hepler was among those who attended Fire School last week.
“Sweet Home runs good programs. I’m very excited about what they have coming up,” he said about the district’s wildland program.
About 170 wildland firefighters and instructors converged on Sweet Home High School for the annual Fire School June 24-28, hosted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF), US Fish and Wildlife Service, and US Forest Service.
Five of SHFAD’s approximately 30 volunteers participated in the program to be more qualified to apply for a position in the district’s new Wildland Fire Division, which is expected to hire a hand crew of up to 15 people next month.
Fire Chief Nick Tyler said the cutting edge program is peaking interest among many firefighters.
Isaiah Harris, who’s been volunteering with SHFAD for almost a year now, said he moved from a career path at Dutch Bros. to a career in firefighting because he likes the camaraderie and “boy stuff” it offers.
“I’ve always been community-oriented,” Harris said. “Just knowing the people that you’re in the town with and being able to see them everyday and do this kind of stuff is fun.”
Along with his Sweet Home colleagues at Fire School, Harris plans to put in for one of the hand crew positions in the fire district’s new program, which will provide assistance to homeowners to create defensible space, create control lines and work on fuel reduction in about 40 miles of forest surrounding Sweet Home.
The wildland program not only provides more employment opportunities in the area, but also opens up a chance to work in fire service without having to do medical.
“It’s something they need that’s new and unprecedented,” Harris said about the program. “That’s something that I like doing, kind of going into things new and being versatile and adaptable.”
Tyson Rust, who’s been volunteering with SHFAD for about three years now, said his dad was a firefighter, so it’s a career he grew up around.
“I enjoy doing it,” he said. “I enjoy helping out and helping out the city and being part of the department.”
He also expressed interest in joining Sweet Home’s new hand crew.
The fire school they participated in last week helps prepare new and trained firefighters for the rigors of fighting fire in both Oregon’s forests and rural-urban interface areas. Co-incident commanders Chris Mushrush, Fire Planner for Northwest Oregon Interagency Fire Management, and Craig Pettinger, District Forester for ODF South Cascade District, led training in tactical skills and safety.
“Fire School provides crucial education and training in wildland fire to new firefighters and gives veteran firefighters a chance to refresh their skills and explore leadership opportunities,” Mushrush said. “It’s also an important opportunity to strengthen interagency ties and collaboration.”
Harris expressed appreciation for the collaboration between multiple entities to make something like fire school and fire fighting possible.
“When you have wildfires, when you’re looking at fire marshals, the logistics, everything, it’s a serious group of people that get together and make these things happen,” he said. “When you drive by, you just see a fire and firefighters. Then, once you get on this side of it, you realize how much it takes, just professional skill to be able to get that together and make it all happen in the correct fashion. It’s pretty cool to watch.”
The trainees learned about fire behavior, suppression tactics, weather, map and compass use, teamwork, leadership, safety, use of engines, tools and hose lays, and fire investigation. Part of the experience also included giving the participants a taste of life in a real fire camp by sleeping in tents at the school, eating meals in a group and putting their new skills to work on live fires.
“This whole week is about how to be safe, how to properly do everything and how to basically cover our butts so there’s no casualties and everybody goes home,” Harris said.
The training culminated with a live fire exercise on Friday just outside of Sweet Home. The opportunity gave trainees a chance to apply their newly acquired skills and techniques to suppress and mop-up a real fire. The field site, located north of Foster Lake, was provided by Cascade Timber Consulting.
“The live fire exercise provides an invaluable training experience – working in smoke, hiking through uneven terrain, and working closely with crew members to dig a fireline – these are all things they’ll experience this season as wildland firefighters,” Pettinger said.
In addition to Harris, Hepler and Rust, SHFAD volunteers Daniel Goodwin and Kelso Ellis also participated in Fire School.
The SHFAD volunteers currently work in a variety of avenues, including structural fires, rescues and brush fires. With the added training they received through Fire School, they will be more qualified to fight fires in wildland settings.
“I think after Wiley Creek kicked off last year, I think it’s kind of creating the urgency to get a crew together that has been through the school,” Hepler said. “So if the community of Sweet Home has another incident such as Wiley Creek or Ames Creek or something up the Calapooia, we will have this local response to it.”