Colorado Wildfire Academy

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Eleventh annual Colorado Wildfire Academy begins Monday

(Carbondale-AP) -- The upcoming tenth anniversary of the deaths
of 14 firefighters on Storm King Mountain near Glenwood Springs
will be part of this week's annual Colorado Wildfire Academy.
More than eleven-hundred firefighters from across the country
and overseas will be in Carbondale for the largest annual wildfire
training event in the United States.
Carbondale was chosen as the site for the eleventh annual
academy in part because it is close to Storm King. Firefighters
will hike up the Storm King memorial trail at sunset Monday and
Saturday and at sunrise Wednesday. Fire survivor Eric Hipke will
lead two of those hikes.
The academy's main goal is to put firefighters through realistic
training experiences to learn how to handle their jobs. More than
40 courses will cover wildland firefighting, safety and other
topics.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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CARBONDALE, Colo. (AP) - Urban firefighters are learning tactics
for battling wilderness blazes as cities and suburbs increasingly
encroach on undeveloped wooded areas.
Fire officials estimate tens of thousands of homes have been
built near undeveloped areas of brush and trees, making them
vulnerable to wildfires.
"We've got very expensive homes being dropped down into the
really dry pinon and juniper forest with minimal forethought,"
said Milton Moomaw, a captain with the Agua Fria, N.M., fire
district south of Santa Fe.
Members of local fire departments compose 44 percent of the
1,100 trainees at this week's Colorado Wildfire Academy, believed
to be the largest school of its kind in the nation.
Volunteer firefighter Nick Anzuoni said he was amazed that a
Massachusetts forest blackened by a 50,000-acre wildfire decades
ago is now thick with houses, as well as pitch pine and scrub oak.
"You see these houses sitting in this stuff and you go, 'Oh, my
God!"' said Anzuoni, a lieutenant in the Colrain, Mass., Volunteer
Fire Department.
Frank Cavaliere, a fire marshal in Cortez, Colo., said wildland
fires were not an issue in the past.
"They'd burn a few hundred acres of trees, maybe a few
thousand, and then they'd go out," Cavaliere said. "Now, more and
more people want to get away from urban issues, traffic, pollution,
overcrowding. It's an issue."
The academy is being held this year near Storm King Mountain,
where 14 firefighters lost their lives 10 years ago.
Eric Hipke, a smokejumper who survived the July 6, 1994,
tragedy, is a guest this year. He and others will take fire
managers and trainees to 14 crosses that mark the spot where each
firefighter fell.
A federal panel concluded the firefighters were overrun by a
wall of fire that trapped them on the mountainside. Others have
theorized they were killed by a blast of superheated gases.
Hipke hopes to share the lessons he learned that day.
"Don't be afraid to maybe speak up if you see something
wrong," he said to a group he led up the mountain Wednesday.
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On the Net:
Colorado Wildfire Academy: http://www.cowildfireacademy.com/