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.

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.