Wildfire Firefighting: Preparation, Building Confidence, and Getting Ready to Lead

There's a lot to learn about the field of firefighting, especially when one considers the jobs and trainings for both structural firefighting and wildfire firefighting. Since we're smack-dab in the season for wildfires, here are a few sites for reading, viewing, and consideration of how to get prepared and maintain your progress in wildfire understanding throughout the year.

First, from the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, a couple of great pages with important information on what to expect from wildfire situations and how to grow in knowledge. 

• https://www.nwcg.gov/wfldp/toolbox

A great place to start learning about basic practices involved in day-to-day wildfire operations. 

• Also from NCWG, the Wildland Fire Leadership Training Program. A fantastic place to start understanding what it takes to develop the skills and confidence required for the stressful and demanding field of wildfire operations. Start checking it out and I think you'll understand how a little bit of applicable information will help you feel like you can not only do this job, but how you can really contribute and enjoy all it demands of us.

• For Initial Attack Firefighters, the ability to quickly and accurately size-up a fire is a key skill. To do it well requires a thorough understanding of fire behavior, firefighting tactics, resource capability, risk management, and more, nevertheless, you can begin developing size-up competency even before your first IC5 role. This video is an introduction to size-up methods and skills; we'll use it as we need to to help develop better skill and share among the department our experiences and get some more field practice and trainee roles on incidents.

• In this Pack Vid, Fire Crew Supervisor Chris "Roo" Ruano demonstrates what items to carry in a Firefighter Fire Line pack. The pack used in this video is a Mystery Ranch Hotshot Pack for use in Wildland Fire Crew applications, not unlike what we have available to most members in our department

And finally, "Unskilled Labor" A Season with the Hotshots= a Wildland Fire Documentary about Hotshot Firefighters from the Sawtooth crew. It basically shows the daily crew life of working as a hotshot wildland firefighter and much of what we find ourselves involved in from summer to summer, even if we might not do it as often or as insanely competently as many Hotshots do.

 We hope these sites help you feel more confident and able to ask the questions that will enable our department to become more successful, more safe, and even more enjoyable to be a part of as we serve our community.