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"

As we go into this Memorial Day holiday weekend lets us NEVER forget the sacrifices of our brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, friends and all family who have given their life protecting ours.

In a small way of saying thanks please use or distribute the coloring sheet below.

Also please know that on June 4^th Virginia will honor its fallen firefighters from the previous year. Below is info taken from a brochure that will be given to all firefighters’ attending the wildland fire academy next week.  I hope you enjoy the poem that I wrote using a poem a Canadian Firefighter wrote to honor the victims’ of 9/11 several years ago as a guide.

The annual Virginia Fallen Firefighters Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, June 4, 2011 at the Richmond Inter­national Raceway Complex’s Old Dominion Building.

If you cannot be there physically you can honor those who gave their life in the line of duty with a moment of silence.

Seven firefighters who died in the line of duty or have been rec­ognized by the Virginia Line of Duty Act in the last year will be honored for their bravery and dedicated public service.

The fallen firefighters to be honored are Assistant Chief Carl Persing of Dale City Volunteer Fire Department and City of Manassas, Firefighter Timothy Pigg of Amherst Vol­unteer Fire Department, Chief Posey Dillon of Rocky Mount Volunteer Fire Department, Firefighter William “Danny” Altice of Rocky Mount Volunteer Fire Department, Fire­fighter William Harold “Hal” Clark of Atlantic Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company, William Obenchain Jr. of Roanoke Fire-EMS, and Zygimantas Zalys of City of Manassas. In addition to honoring recently fallen firefighters, the memo­rial service will honor the memory of all Virginia firefighters who have given their lives in the service of the Common­wealth of Virginia.

"The Fallen!"
In the battle against the beastly fire...
Standing together, ready to fight!
To help the victims of every incident,
committed to service, by day and by night.

These are the courageous Firefighters,
In their cities and towns of Virginia land.
They stand together as really true friends,
Routinely they're all working hand in hand.

Everyone of them looks after the other,
They know no borders...!
Ready to help in their unselfish way,
Without fear, they follow their orders!
Seven of them gave their lives in Virginia,
 two thousand and ten...!
Firefighters everywhere will remember them,
And their feelings of loss will never be gone.


By the way, live streaming the service this year will be on the web.  There is a link at the bottom of our home page, www.vafire.com that will be active the day of the service. 

The end of a long week of training

The Complex Incident Management Course inIone CA comes to and end tomorrow. the students(and cadre) were put through a rather untense 8 hour simulation that tested them as a team and as individuals who will become part of a select few folks who can manage the most complex of incidents. The simulation had the teams managing a several thousand acre wildfire in Maine.

There were many sighting of Smokey Bear throughout the campus of the CalFire Academy, below is a wnderful stained glass window.

Complex Incident Management more from Ione CA

Students are begining to come togther as a team eventhough many have a significant amount of prior experience all are either learning new "tools" or honing those they previously possed. Students were presented material on Team Dynamics, Lessons Learned, Command and Ordering. The day ended with a challanging simulation that had them handeling an earthquake. The simulations continue to push many outside of their comfort zone of wildfire. One of the highlights of the day was a presentation by 3 of the cadre who were deployed to the Deepwater Horizon Incident. See the organizational chart below, as complex incidents go it does not get any more complex.

As this training goes into its 3rd day students and cadre prepare for the challanges ahead. Wildfires dont take a break for training as is evident from the many wildfires occuring

Sometimes it might not be easier to prevent the wildfire than fight it but it sure is SAFER, Less DESTRUCTIVE and Less COSTLY. Please do your part DONT LET A WILDFIRE START.