Firefighters to attend Fire Days Training
Annual Interagency fire training to be held in Alpine June 24
by Bridger-Teton National Forest
June 19, 2006
As the fire season begins in western Wyoming, firefighters for the Bridger-Teton National Forest are readying themselves for the Interagency All Fire Days training to take place on the Bridger-Teton in Alpine, Wyoming on Saturday, June 24, 2006.
This year’s event will occur on the Greys River Road and firefighters from several western Wyoming counties, the Bureau of Land Management and Grand Teton National Park will all participate in exercises designed to foster communications and familiarity with each agency’s equipment, personnel and training.
Practical exercises this year will include: a station where firefighters construct handline, which is a manual break constructed in the vegetation in order to contain a wildfire; a communications station, where firefighters will become familiar with other agencies radio frequencies and handheld communications operations; and a station on entrapment avoidment, where firefighters will practice safety techniques in order to recognize dangerous situations while combating wildland fires.
Other training opportunities will include: a station focusing on engine burnover and fire shelter deployment; a station on the wildland urban interface, which is a term agencies use to describe the area that is adjacent to the Forest where homes and other developments are butting up against the forested lands; and finally, a station on structure triage and how to identify homes that can be saved when fires encroach into the wildland urban interface.
Firefighters will respond to the training in their apparatus, much as they would to a real wildland fire call. Firefighters will be equipped with a handtool and their Initial Attack (IA) pack, which contains a fire shelter, food for a day, water, and various other supplies such as batteries, flashlights, metal files, and flagging tape. Wildland firefighters must be prepared to respond to incidents and sustain themselves for a 24-hour period during the initial attack phase of a fire.
Currently, the fire danger on the Bridger-Teton National Forest is LOW. To date, there have been five human-caused fires on the Bridger-Teton, with the largest fire being the Boulder Lake fire on the Pinedale Ranger District, which burned 3-acres earlier this month.
Pinedale Online Editor’s Note: Wildland fire activity was light nationally in the past 24 hours with 98 new large fires reported. Seven new large fires were reported: three in Texas, and one each in Arizona, Idaho, New Mexico and Washington. Four large fire was contained, one each in Idaho, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Wyoming’s only large fire, the Tracer fire which was burning in eastern Wyoming, was contained today at 14, 384 acres. Red Flag Warnings are in effect Monday for most of Utah, and western and central Wyoming for strong winds and low relative humidity. Strong winds are predicted for most of northern Arizona and New Mexico.
Related Links:
National Large Fire Map (updated daily)
Daily Fire Situation Report
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