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 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 11th Annual Interagency Wildfire Training Academy

About 350 firefighters from throughout Virginia will gather in Farmville at the annual Virginia Interagency Wildfire Training Academy. This year will mark the 11^th academy which had its origin at the military base at Fort Pickett. We have come such a long way and although the location has changed and the training rooms, lodging and meals have improved what has stayed the same is the dedication of the Overhead Incident management team. A tremendous effort is required to organize and conduct this event, many agencies/organizations support the Virginia Department of Forestry’s efforts to develop the best trained wildfire fighters in Virginia.  

The Academy is run as if t was an Incident and every morning there is a briefing for students and instructors.

The annual four-day Fire Preparedness Exercise brings together firefighters from every agency in the county to interact and hone their skills through a variety of drills while wearing full safety gear and carrying firefighting tools.

Nearly 4,000 firefighters will have gone through the training. Below praying to the "gods" or chanting "were #1" no just checking which way the tree is leaning during the chainsaw class.

“With financial support provided by the National Park Service, we are able to bring together hundreds of paid and volunteer firefighters, who are already outstanding structural firefighters, and teach them everything from the basics of wildland firefighting to the use of chain saws and fire plows to advanced tactics and leadership.”
In addition to the structural firefighters, a number of “students” at the academy come from the Virginia Department of Forestry (VDOF) and three other state agencies (Department of Conservation and Recreation, Department of Corrections, and the Virginia National Guard), as well as two federal agencies - the US Forest Service (USFS) and the National Park Service (NPS).  The 65 instructors at the Academy hail from numerous federal (USFS, USF&WS, NPS) and state (VDOF, DCR, Va. Dept. of Fire Programs, Maryland Forest Service) agencies as well as The Nature Conservancy, the Chesterfield County Fire Department, the North Garden FD, Rockingham Fire & Rescue, and Shenandoah Fire & Rescue. Firefighters from 5 states other than VA will be attending this year.

Sand Table exercise in the S 131 "Basic Firefighter"

While many of the courses are classroom based, several involve field work. These include: the chainsaw operations course, where participants learn how to properly fell trees during a wildfire, and the bulldozer/fireplow course, where participants operate these important pieces of heavy equipment over and through a variety of obstacles they will encounter in the woods. In addition to the obstacle course they work through during the day, “students” in this course also will attack and suppress - using only their bulldozer/fireplows - a real wildfire at night as part of the program.

The Tractor class is always a popular course.

The food at Longwood is always popular and in plenty of supply.

Check back for more posts during the academy next week.