Training in the Wildland/Urban Interface

For starts I'd like to paint the picture for anyone interested. I live in the northeast area of Maryland. I grew up on the boarder of a state park and spent much of my childhood in the natural world. I started volunteering at a fire station near my home, and have been there for the past few years. I have wanted to incoorperate my wildland life with firefighter since I can remember and obviously wildland firefighting is perfect for that.

At my volunteer station we are very close to rural maryland with plenty of wildland/urban interface. In hopes of sparking (no pun intended) some interest in my fellow firefighters in the topic with some good old fashion hard work training. I've done as much research as I can online and in numerous books to find some training ideas but am at a lose.

I have gone through S-130 and S-190 online and got my redcard this past summer, for the rest of my station most have up to firefighter 2 (structural) with the limit wildland training that comes with those certifications.

Any ideas for training we can do, class room or practical, or perhaps a better source to find some ideas?

Thank you in advance.

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/forests/f...retraining.asp

Most forestry departments do have formal training. Have you contacted them.

I myself would get approval and involvement from the Md DNR.
It clearly states on the webpage http://www.dnr.state.md.us/forests/wfm.asp
"The Forest Service also relies on the volunteer and career fire service throughout the state for initial attack response for wildfires. "

With that -
I would make a point that your dept would love to help but would need formal training.

Great links, I have browsed the DNR website (I took my S-130 and S-190 CD-based from that link) but that first link was a new one to me and I will surely look into it. The quote you pointed out gives me hope that the DNR will be helpful in getting us the training we want and need.

You are looking for S-215 Wildland Operations in the Urban Interface. You can order it from the National Wildfire Coordinating Group's training department via this link -> http://www.nwcg.gov/pms/pubs/catalog/catalog.pdf Look on page 36.

You can not email in an order, but you can fax it and pay w/ credit card.

good luck

This course list seems to be exactly what I was looking for! One questions after looking through the online packet for a half an hour or so, what are the requirements to be an instructor of these classes? The "Gap" courses seem to be what I was looking for to the t, with many experienced structural fire fighters that could use some more training in the wildland/urban interface. We have a couple of state fire instructors I think I could talk into offering these classes but do they need to get a certification from NWCG, and could I perhaps get certified to instruct perhaps the lower level classes? These are some questions that came to mind right away and I was unable to answer after reading through a little and I figured I'd ask here before I start sending out my infamous e-mails that I think some get tired of.

Many thanks for all the great feed back guys and gals, its great to have some people even online to bounce ideas and questions off of to keep moving forward.

dgorham, so far as I know (which may only for Florida Division of Forestry) to be an instructor of most any wildland classes, so long as you have taken the class (and passed, gotten the certificate) you are considered qualified to teach that particular course. We generally recommend our own instructors take the Fire Instructor 1 class, and there is also an NWCG course called S-410 Facilitative Instructor (which would be the wildland fire equivalent)

Our DNR here in WI conducts training for local fire departments and I am sure tyour State will be willing to do the same for you if you can come up with enough participants to make it practical for them to run the class. S-215 is above and beyon what you prabably need and you technically don't have the quals to take it, but that doesn't mean you can't get the materials and study them in an effort to improve yourself and your co-workers. There are also grants available for WUI programs in your local community that you may want to look into and get involved in.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dgorham

For starts I'd like to paint the picture for anyone interested. I live in the northeast area of Maryland. I grew up on the boarder of a state park and spent much of my childhood in the natural world. I started volunteering at a fire station near my home, and have been there for the past few years. I have wanted to incoorperate my wildland life with firefighter since I can remember and obviously wildland firefighting is perfect for that.

At my volunteer station we are very close to rural maryland with plenty of wildland/urban interface. In hopes of sparking (no pun intended) some interest in my fellow firefighters in the topic with some good old fashion hard work training. I've done as much research as I can online and in numerous books to find some training ideas but am at a lose.

I have gone through S-130 and S-190 online and got my redcard this past summer, for the rest of my station most have up to firefighter 2 (structural) with the limit wildland training that comes with those certifications.

Any ideas for training we can do, class room or practical, or perhaps a better source to find some ideas?

Thank you in advance.

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So what other training did you take prior to receiving your redcard? Here you have to take L-180 and 280 before you can take any of the other NWCG classes. Just curious if you took these?

I edited my orignal post; see the next post.....

I have a simple/easy to use Checklist that I developed for my Dept. It also makes a great Training Aid and if you want to I will send you another one that you can adjust/change as it suits your needs.

The information comes from the CSFM Command 1B/1C and also S-215.

Send me a P.M. and give me an email address and I'll send it to ya since it's too large to attach here as an attachment.

Stay safe and smile.....