Training, training, wildfires and more wildfires

Been away recently doing some M-410 training at the Mid-Atlantic Forest Fire Compact in Morgantown WV.  Wanted to get a post out ref the wildfires that continue from FL to AK and several states in-between.

I will be posting some additional pictures from the VA Wildfire Academy and some from the Mid-Atlantic one this week so keep checking back. THANKS.

Forest Fire Academy Teaches How to Fight Wildfires

Posted  Monday, June 6, 2011 ; 05:53 PM

By Mike Krafcik

MORGANTOWN -- Firefighters and other participants from seven states are learning how to fight wildfires in Monongalia County this week. They're nestled in the West Virginia University Forest.

Willie Cirone, a firefighter from New Jersey and instructor to the Mid-Atlantic Wildfire Training Academy says, “The experience compared to here, the fires magnitude is much greater, the fires are much larger, higher impact on the communities, fire camps. It’s firefighting but it’s firefighting in a different way,”

This year was the academy’s fifth year at West Virginia University. Cirone said students in the program learned the skills to be able to participate in fire fighting out west.   The academy was taught by instructors from the Eastern Compact in conjunction with the WVU Division of Forestry and Natural Resources, and included firefighters from all along the east coast. We have students here from Florida we have students here from Ohio, from Maine, Virginia, New Jersey, just about all the states represented on the east coast.”

Associated Press

Huge AZ wildfire spreads, health conditions worsen

By BRIAN SKOLOFF and SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN , 06.11.11, 04:05 AM

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/06/11/general-us-arizona-wildfires_8511746.html

Huge eastern Ariz. wildfire heads toward New Mexico, threatens towns; health conditions worsen

http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/48b3cc1409444c748427d987dfd74a33/US--Arizona-Wildfires/

Residents flee as major Alaska wildfire grows

By Yereth Rosen

ANCHORAGE, Alaska | Wed Jun 8, 2011 9:17pm EDT

 (Reuters) - All residents near an expanding wildfire near Fairbanks have fled, making way for firefighters to combat the blaze, officials said on Wednesday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/09/us-wildfire-alaska-idUSTRE75808Y20110609

Southeast Colorado Has Several Large Wildfires Burning Thousands Of Acres

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/09/southeast-colorado-has-se_n_873787.html

Two large wildfires continue to burn in Alabama

Seminole fire being battled for the fifth day

Submitted by Elishia Ballentine

(Created: Thursday, June 9, 2011 4:15 PM CDT)

http://www.baldwincountynow.com/articles/2011/06/09/local_news/doc4df137d31ebaa751219877.txt

Florida crews trying to contain two major wildfires

WILDFIRES

March 01, 2011|By the CNN Wire Staff

 Two major wildfires have burned more than 18,000 acres along Florida's eastern coast, state officials said Tuesday.

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-03-01/us/florida.wildfires_1_second-wildfire-major-wildfires-wildfire-mitigation-specialist?_s=PM:US

TX Wildfire Update – June 9, 2011

Dos Amigos fire west of Robert Lee 6,000 acres and growing

•             Texas Forest Service

http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2011/jun/09/wildfire-update-june-9-2011/

Please remember, I will be posting some additional pictures from the VA Wildfire Academy and some from the Mid-Atlantic one this week so keep checking back. THANKS.

The 2011 VA Wildfire Academy Class Photos

The 2011 Virginia Interagency Wildland Fire Academy, out 11^th, is in the history books. Below is the class pictures, more pictures taken during the week will be posted soon.

I-200 ICS for single Resources and IA Incidents

 I-300 ICS for Expanding Incidents

S-130/190, L-180 and I-100 Basic Firefighter Training

S-131 Advanced Firefighter

S-133 Look UP, Look Down, Look Around

S-200 Initial Attack Incident Commander

S-212 Wildfire Powersaws

S-215 Fire Operations in the WUI

S-230 Single Resource Boss

S-290 Intermediate Wildland Fire Behavior

Tractor Plow Operations for the Wildland Firefighter

Check Back for more later.

Virginia Wildland Fire Academy Day 4

Today was a beautiful day in Farmville on the campus of Longwood University.  All the classes that were stuck inside were wishing they had a field trip or some other exercise that would get them outside.

Below Phil reviews the exercise from yesterday. Learning how to use the belt weather kits and we got to see just how variable the readings were just by altering where it was we took the readings, in the shade, on the tennis courts, in the fountain etc...

 Fuels and weather we learned were 2 of the big 3 (fuels, weather and topography) that were the most variable and difficult to deal with while trying to predict a fires behavior.

 Working through the FLAME exercise "ALMOST" got the better of us but we overcame and hopefully by the end we all at least knew the process and had a basic understanding of what Claiborne was trying to teach us.

The tractor class held its night time field exercise last night, hopefully it went well and I hope to have some pictures to share with you soon, along with some from our distinguished guests that showed up.

Thanks for "looking in"

Virginia Wildfire Academy Day 3

Today was another good day at the academy. Two new classes started and one finished up. The weather has moderated some giving a bit of relief to those classes which had outside field work. Had two minor “accidents” one of the bulldozers flipped over on its side while being operated on a slope and a student fell on campus dislocating a shoulder.  Both the dozer and the student are just fine and back to work/class.

I don’t have many pictures to post today as I was busy with my S-290 class and did not get pictures from anyone else.

 Morning Briefing for the incomming firefighters. Check out the tee-shirt design for this years academy. If you wanted one you should have signed up.

 One of our fine new instructors delivering the unit on Relative Humidity to the S-290 class.

The meteorologist in the S-290 (Fire Behavior Class) gave students a look at a brand new fire weather web site that the weather service has just launched. The site is …

http://radar.srh.noaa.gov/fire/

check it out, the map is very interactive. You can zoom way in and just by clicking on a location get a very specific fire weather forecast for that area.

 Take a good look at the wall murals in the dining hall, there are a few faces that look awful familar. I could swear I saw them in class...

This might be my last posting from the Virginia Wildfire Academy. Will try and get some pictures from the other classes posted soon. Check back the next posting shlould be from the Mid-Atlantic Forest Fire Compact Academy being held in Morgantown WV.

Virginia Wildfire Academy Day 2

Looks like the final count is in and the attendees at this year’s academy break down as follows.

There will be 352 people attending (students and instructors)

DOF full time employees 152

DOF part time employees 25

Fire departments and local willand fire crews 116

Miscellaneous 7

Maryland DNR 2

USFS 6

Virginia Tech 6

VA Dept of Conservation and Recreation 12

US National Park Service 14

US Fish and Wildlife Service 1

Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry 1

VA Dept of Fire Programs 1

Virginia Master Naturalists  2

Nature Conservancy 3

National Weather Service 1

Kentucky Division of Forestry 3

This breaks down to 204 employees of various state agencies

22 federal employees

126 local government employees

There will be 17 people attending from Out of state

Maryland 3

Ohio 1

South Carolina 4

Kentucky 5

Pennsylvania 4

It is quite the testament to the quality of the training provided by the Virginia Department of Forestry that so many folks from so many agencies/organizations and from several states have all elected to devote their time and funds to attend Virginia’s Wildland Fire Academy. It does not hurt that the Virginia Academy is one of the lowest if not the lowest cost to attend training opportunities in the nation. Funding from the National Park Service and other grants allow us to offer a full week of training for $50 per student (registration, lodging and meals) for a majority of those attending.

I hope you enjoy seeing some of the activity around the academy today.

Longwood University "Our Home for the week"

John Miller (on R) Incident Commander enjoys a morning chat with Steve Counts the Safety Officer for the incident (ie academy)

Phil Manuel, a meterologist with the National Weather Service gave a weather report at the morning briefing. He kept it short..... HOT!

Several vendors were very generous with products we used as "door prises" in all vendors gave over $1,000 worth of items. More about these great supporters of our academy later. Above a lucky student (and an excited one at that) receives his prise, a can of Monkey Butt Powder.

Ed Zimmer ( VDOF) presents the unit on Topography to the S-290 class.

Sam Lindblom (Nature Conservancy) tackles the unit on fuels. Think he brought 1/2 the forest into the class to give the students something more than pictures to look at as he discussed fuels and fire behavior. 

Phil Manuel (NWS) presents the unit on fire weather.

The caferteria is always a good place to "re-fuel" and discuss the days events.

Who says adults cant play in the sand box? In the S-131 class sand boxes, toy tractors, toy bull dozers and toy fire trucks are used to train in tactics and decision making.

The S-290 class photo.

Well today was a long one but we are off to a great start with a great bunch of students, instructors and overhead. Looking forward to tomorrow its actually suppose to be "cooler" 90-95 instead of 95-100.

Check back for more from day 3 at the academy.

Virginia's Wildfire Academy 2011 day 1

The 11th annual Virginia Interagency Wildfire Training Academy is off to a good start. Today was a day to set up the Incident Command Center, unpack the numerous trucks with supplies and prepare for the registration of about 350 students this year.

The conference staff at Longwood University was very helpful and the day went fairly smooth, HOT but smooth. This academy could not happen without the support of MANY agencies along with the University. I will in an upcoming post identify all the agencies that have either provided instructors or will have students attending.

Many things have changes from the days that we fought fire with very basic tools and equipment, one thing that has remained the same is the “fire”, its still very dangerous work and very demanding physically and mentally. It takes a tough and dedicated person to do what it is we do.

I will try and post pictures and information from the academy each day, please check back.

For now I will leave you with a listing of the courses offered to the 350 students at the academt this year.

Course Descriptions

I-200 ICS for Single Resources and Initial Action IncidentsThis course introduces students to the principles of the Incident Command System (ICS) associated with incident related performance.

I-300 ICS for Expanding Incidents This course provides description and detail of the Incident Command System (ICS) organization and operations in supervising roles on expanding or Type 3 incidents.

S-130 Firefighter Training / S-190 Introduction to Wildland Fire Behavior
L-180 Human Factors on the Fire line / I-100 ICS OrientationThis course trains firefighters in basic Wildland firefighting skills. Safety, tactics, equipment use and operation prepares the firefighter for fire suppression work. Training in fire behavior factors will aid in the safe and effective control of Wildland fires. Basic knowledge of the structure and concept of the ICS system will be covered along with human factors on the fire line. This course will be presented in a distance learning environment as approximately 24 hours of training will be completed prior to the academy. The remaining field portion of the training will be completed at the academy along with the final examination.

S-131 Advanced Firefighter Training This course meets the training needs of both Advanced Firefighter/Squad Boss (FF1) and Incident Commander Type 5 (ICT5). The course is designed to be interactive in nature. It contains several tactical decision games designed to facilitate learning the objectives and class discussion. Topics include: fireline reference materials, communications, and tactical decision making.

S-133 Look Up, Look Down, Look AroundThis course examines the wildland fire environment and the indicators firefighters should observe on the fire line in order to anticipate fire behavior.

S-200 Initial Attack Incident CommanderDesigned to provide the initial attack Incident Commander with training in Readiness and Mobilization, Size-up, planning and ordering, deployment and containment, administrative duties and post fire evaluation.

S-212 Wildfire Power Saws Provides students’ skill training for work as a power saw operator on wildland fires. This course covers the duties and responsibilities of the power saw operator, parts and maintenance of the power saw, application and safety.

S-215 Fire Operations in the Urban Interface                                                                                    The course is required training for initial attack incident commanders and strike team leaders. This course is designed to assist structure and wildland firefighters to make tactical decisions when confronting wildland fire that threatens life, property, and improvements in the wildland/urban interface. Instructional units include: interface awareness, size up, initial strategy and incident action plan, structure triage, structure protection tactics, incident action plan assessment and update, follow-up and public relations, and firefighter safety in the interface.

S-230 Single Resource Boss This is a classroom course designed to produce student proficiency in the performance of duties associated with the single resource boss position from initial dispatch through demobilization to the home unit. Topics include: operational leadership, preparation and mobilization, assignment preparation, risk management, entrapment avoidance, safety and tactics, offline duties, demobilization, and post incident responsibilities.

S-290 Intermediate Wildland Fire BehaviorThis course is designed to instruct prospective fireline supervisors in wildland fire behavior for effective and safe fire management operations. The course provides a detailed treatment of fuels, weather, topography and their effects on fire behavior.

Tractor Plow Operation                                                                                                                       This course was created, designed and developed by the Virginia Department of Forestry and instructs the student in the safe and effective operation of tractor plow units. On the ground instruction is utilized along with some indoor instruction on tactics and safety. This course is designed for operators who have some level of experience operating a tractor plow on fire assignments.

Thanks for checking by and please come back for pictures and information from day 2 tomorrow night.

Smokey is sure proud of all these women and men who take the time to train to be the best they can be and to put their lives in danger when fighting a wildfire.