Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge conducted a 704-acre prescribed fire April 4, 2014 in the southeast corner of the refuge near I-75 and SR 29. Firefighter Connor Bowden uses a drip torch to ignite a portion of the project. Photo Credit: Paul Stevko – USFWS
A survey was conducted in January, 2021 to assess the state of both National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) and non-NWCG prescribed fire training in the Southern geographic area. It was developed, distributed, and analyzed by a work group formed by the Southeast Regional Strategy Committee of the Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy and the Southeast Regional Partnership for Planning and Sustainability.
The online survey was completed by 955 practitioners, private landowners, and others within all 13 Southern states.
The complete 34 page analysis of the responses is posted, but below are some observations and recommendations.
Results from a January, 2021 online survey to assess the prescribed fire training needs in the Southeast.
A week-long class aimed at training forest rangers and technicians to use heavy equipment to fight wildfires
Still image from MFC video.
Earlier this month 16 employees from the Mississippi Forestry Commission (MFC) took part in the agency’s Heavy Equipment Academy (HEA).
“Training is a huge part of what we do at the Mississippi Forestry Commission,” said Russell Bozeman, Mississippi State Forester. “Responding to wildfires is dangerous and the Heavy Equipment Academy gives our employees the real-world training they need to safely and effectively suppress wildfires in the state.”
During the HEA, students participate in two days of classroom instruction followed by three days of field work at the MFC’s HEA training site in Raymond. Students learned how to properly plow a firelane with a bulldozer, how to use a bulldozer to shape slopes, and how to properly “recover” a bulldozer that gets bogged down in mud.
“This real-world training gives our employees the experience and confidence they need to perform their wildfire suppression duties when called upon,” Mr. Bozeman said.
Brock Blevins, the Training Coordinator for the NASA Applied Remote Sensing Training Program (ARSET) asked that we pass along an online training opportunity.
The six-part training in English and Spanish will cover how remote sensing and Earth observations can be used to monitor conditions before, during and after fires. Topics covered will include weather and climate conditions, fuel characterization, fire risk, smoke detection, monitoring, forecasting, fire behavior, and post-fire landscapes. This intermediate-level training will provide lectures and case studies focused on the use of Earth observations for operational fire monitoring.
Audience: This training is primarily intended for local, regional, state, federal, and international organizations involved in resource and ecosystem management, health and air quality, disaster risk management, disaster response, and those with an interest in applying remote sensing to fire science.
Flight simulator at the NSW RFS Training Academy. NSW RFS image.
In 2019 our Australian friends in the New South Wales Rural Fire Service built a Training Academy in Dubbo for improving the skills of fire personnel when responding to emergencies across the state. They soon will be adding an Aviation Centre of Excellence which will have four flight simulators.
Flight simulator at the NSW RFS Training Academy. NSW RFS image.
One of those simulators is being used now in the Academy, and is based on a helicopter cockpit for trainees wearing virtual reality helmets. The immediate plans are for air attack supervisor roles and later for other airborne positions.
Flight simulator at the NSW RFS Training Academy. NSW RFS image.
The system will be for maintaining currency, and to give trainees new to aerial firefighting the chance to find out if the role is for them.
NSW RFS Training Academy. NSW RFS image.
The simulator was delivered in December and the staff has been building training scenarios, with some based on actual fire situations.
Located at the Dubbo City Regional Airport, the Academy includes classroom and practical training with a large auditorium, lecture theater, indoor and outdoor training areas, gym, and catering services with a commercial kitchen. The academy will ultimately have 97 bedroom accommodations for trainees.
“I think it’s really important that apart from the fact that we are launching the simulator here, it becomes another building to support our academy,” said Commissioner of the NSW RFS Rob Rogers. “This is the first of four simulators that we will have in that building. Having the ability to train our own people and use simulator systems like this to be able to upskill people in a non-hazardous environment and obviously then complement that with actual flying will help our people become better trained and have access to better technology.”
The video below is an introduction to the flight simulator.
The next video is about the Training Academy.
The planned Aviation Centre of Excellence. NSW RFS image.
In the current pandemic, in-person training is challenging for fire departments. With support from the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program, New York University collaborated with several fire departments to develop a web-based, interactive firefighter training program – ALIVE (Advanced Learning through Integrated Visual Environments). The system simulates critical decision-making aspects of firefighting and reinforces safety concepts developed by leading industry researchers though interactive tactical scenarios.
This interactive training is now free for Firefighters.
In addition to modules for Fire Dynamics, Residential Fires, Fires in Lightweight Residential Construction, and Wind-driven High-Rise Fires, there are also modules for Wildland fires, including:
Wildland Fire Behavior and Size-up,
Wildland Incident Action Plan and Operational Briefing,
Wildland Fire Scenarios, and
Wildland Urban Interface Structure Defense.
You can either take the courses online from a computer, or the modules can be downloaded individually onto a smart phone or tablet.
Firefighters can access the training at: http://fire.engineering.nyu.edu/ . The page has links to download the modules onto a smart phone, which can also be found on Google Play and the Apple App Store by searching for, Alive: wildland.
Fire departments interested in offering ALIVE training to their members can register by emailing the NYU Fire Research Group at fire.research@nyu.edu. More information is available at http://fire.engineering.nyu.edu/
Firefighters in Victoria, Australia conduct prescribed fires. Forest Fire Management Victoria photo.
The cooler and wetter weather in the Eastern Australian states of New South Wales and Victoria this summer has resulted in a very different bushfire season than the one that led to multiple very large fires a year ago.
Firefighters in Victoria have taken advantage of the conditions to conduct rappel training and complete prescribed fires.
Firefighters in Victoria, Australia conduct a briefing before a prescribed fire. Forest Fire Management Victoria photo.Firefighters in Victoria, Australia conduct a prescribed fire. Forest Fire Management Victoria photo.Firefighters in Victoria, Australia conduct rappel training. Coulson photo.Firefighters in Victoria, Australia conduct rappel training. Coulson photo.
Our newest recruits now go through a new course known as 'General Firefighter', replacing the previous Minimum Skills Wildfire training.
Wodonga West's newest recruits have been training hard and once final assessments are done, they will be ready to fight wildfires ? pic.twitter.com/ZAL3ZWBnee
In the video below Victoria’s new Deputy Chief Fire Officer Geoff Conway and CFA’s Deputy Chief Officer for the South East Region Trevor Owen provide an update on how the bushfire season is going and what to expect ahead in the Gippsland region of Southeast Victoria. It was recorded February 10, 2021.
