Wildland Fire Course To Be Offered For Local High School Students

By Cory Cheguis, Custer County Fire

Custer County Fire, Montana DNRC, and BLM have partnered up to host a basic wildland fire class for high school students ages 16-18, on December 16-17. This class is open to any students interested within South East Montana. This class will get them a national certification as a entry level firefighter. This course is 2 days long and will begin at 0800 -1700, Saturday the 16th and Sunday the 17th 0800-1700.

The course introduces students to the basic concepts of wildland fire behavior, including: The primary wildland fire environment components: fuels, weather, and topography. How characteristics and interactions of fuels, weather, and topography affect fire behavior. How fire behavior affects risk to firefighters.

Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to:

Describe the basic terminology used in wildland fire.

Identify and discuss the fire triangle.

Identify and discuss key characteristics of the primary wildland fire environment components - fuels, weather, and topography.

Identify critical fire weather factors that, combined with receptive fuels, may result in extreme fire behavior.

Recognize how alignment of fuels, weather, and topography can increase the potential for extreme fire behavior.

Together we are trying to build depth in the next generation of wildland firefighters in Eastern Montana, who have real grassroot connections to the community. This can open up many doors for seasonal summer work, or a long-time career path with local, state, or federal agencies. This is also a great pathway for becoming a part of your community fire departments. As we know, in Southeastern Montana at any given time we are only a week away from a drought, and having the resources and people trained correctly assist in creating a wildfire resilient community along with getting a quicker and more effective initial attack when wildfires occur.

For more information, please contact Cory Cheguis at 406-853-2984, email [email protected], or contact Clint Pedersen in Broadus.