Fifty five men and women from the National Forest, Bureau of Land Management and Oregon Department of Forestry will begin their initial training to become wildland firefighters this week. At the end of the training the students will be qualified as entry level firefighters, and will join more than 300 other federal and state wildland firefighters working in Central Oregon this summer.
“This type of intense training provides the essential foundation for becoming an effective, well-informed, and safe firefighter,” said Karen Curtiss, deputy fire staff with Central Oregon Fire Management Service, the combined Forest Service and BLM fire and fuels organization in Central Oregon.
During the week of training, known as Guard School, the new firefighters will go through a rigorous schedule of classroom and field exercises designed to teach a variety of subjects including fire suppression techniques, fire behavior, fire ecology, and navigation skills. The firefighters will also learn how to operate fire engines, pumps and other mechanized equipment utilized for fire suppression.
On Thursday, the firefighters will go through a live fire exercise aimed at providing hands-on experience in line construction techniques, proper utilization of water and mop-up standards. Specialists will ignite a small, 2-3 acre “wildfire” in order to give the new recruits an opportunity to apply their new knowledge on an actual fire.
Classroom work and some of the field exercises will be taught at the Biak Training Center east of Redmond, and the live fire exercise will occur on Forest Service lands in the Cold Springs area west of Sisters. The practice fire will be a low-intensity maintenance burn in an area that was previously treated.
For more information, please contact Heather Fisher at the Bend Fort Rock District Office at 541-480-0913.
