FORT SILL, Okla. (March 5, 2015) -- For the first time, the Installation Management Command taught a Department of Defense Basic Wildland Firefighter Academy Feb. 23-27, at Fort Sill.
About 35 Army and Air Force civilian firefighters, natural resources specialists and environmentalists at-tended the joint training. Participants came from forts Sill, Jackson, Drum and Bliss, White Sands Missile Range, and Sheppard and Tinker Air Force bases.
The students learned about safety and personal protective equipment, fire behavior and its associated weather, and basic wildland firefighter skills and responsibilities with classroom and practical instruction, said Mike Lee, Colorado State University contract instructor.
"A wildland fire unlike a structure fire doesn't own an address, and it moves and burns up everything in its path," said Lee, one of six contract instructors for the training.
Fort Sill had seven firefighters enrolled in the academy, said Bobby Klein Fort Sill Fire and Emergency Services assistant chief for training.
"Some of them are new to wildland firefighting, some of them are experienced, but lack the certification, and some of them are certified, but are getting a chance to refresh," said Klein of the Fort Sill firefighters in the training.
Like Fort Sill, wildland fires are a concern at Fort Bliss, Texas, said Gustavo Ramirez, Fort Bliss Fire Department firefighter.
"We have a lot of ranges with different kinds of ammunition fired from machine guns, helicopters and missiles," he said, "so we get a lot of spot fires and wildland fires that we have to respond to."
Safety measures in firefighting were paramount in the training, said instructor Mike Housh, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services liaison at the Air Force Wildland Fire Center at Eglin AFB, Fla.
"Without that basic fundamental tenet of safety first, it puts the employee at risk in a risky endeavor," he said.
In a session, students learned how to literally fight fire with fire by starting backfires with drip torches and flares, called fusees, to eliminate fuel, such as grass and shrubs.
Course participants also were offered training to become a child passenger safety technician, said Shawn Sullivan, Fort Sill firefighter. The training was provided through Oklahoma Safe Kids.
Participants learned to identify various car seats, seatbelt systems and latches, as well as how to teach parents and caregivers to properly install child safety seats, Sullivan said.
The firefighters practiced their new found safety-seat skills at the Comanche County Health Department in downtown Lawton.
Two natural resources specialists from Tinker attended the academy because of their job duties, which include prescribed burns.
"We work on fuels mitigation so that we can try to prevent serious wild fires in our natural areas," said Donna Nolan, Tinker AFB Natural Resources tech.
On Day 3 of the academy, student Josh Phillips, a new Fort Sill firefighter, said the training was going well.
"It's very helpful especially for the new guys to get familiar with how wild fires behave, and what we'll do out there in the tall grass and trees," said Phillips, who started here in June. "I've learned a lot that I can use."
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