BC3 students get unique firefighting opportunity
Students in a Butler County Community College forestry class had the opportunity in November to earn National Wildfire Coordinating Group certifications in training sessions that were assessed by the state Bureau of Forestry.
The students went to a remote tract of land near BC3's main campus in early November, where they got to practice containment measures with a controlled burn.
During the exercise, students created a “hand line” with council rakes, McLeod tools and Pulaski axes, and learned other techniques to extinguish a wildland fire.
“We actually get to be out here,” said Dan Faller of Cranberry Township, whose goal is to work as a ranger, “and put out the fire ourselves.”
BC3 students learned how to create an indirect attack by establishing the hand line and by using a dripped gasoline-diesel fuel mixture to set a fire just within the hand line, “so that when the two fires come together, there are no more fuels left,” said Chris Calhoun, coordinator of BC3's national wildfire coordinating group certificate program.Objectives for students pursuing the introduction to wildland fire behavior certification include describing the basic terminology used in wildland fire; identifying key characteristics of wildland fire environmental components such as fuels, weather and topography; and recognizing how alignment of fuels, weather and topography can increase the potential for extreme fire behavior.
Jim Forsythe, a fire management officer with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge in Lewistown, Mont., said there are job opportunities available to people with these skills.“There's a lot of competition now” for positions with the federal agency, said Forsythe, who is a 2000 BC3 park and recreation management graduate. “Our preference is to hire folks with this training and these certifications already. That way we don't have to spend the time and effort to get them through it.”More than 1,500 wildfires burned 3,033 acres in Pennsylvania in 2020, according to the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, with nearly all of them caused by humans.
“If a fire would happen,” said Nathan Maxwell of New Castle, whose goal is to become a park ranger, “I will already be educated on how to start the process to put the fire out.”The total damage and cumulative economic loss for the 2021 wildfire season in the United States is expected to be between $70 billion and $90 billion, said Dr. Joel N. Myers, AccuWeather founder and CEO, said in October.BC3's park and recreation management program also offers students the opportunity to earn certifications that include first responder; CPR/AED for the professional rescuer; water rescue and emergency response; ice rescue and emergency response; advanced line systems rescue and other certifications.Bill Foley is coordinator of news and media content at Butler County Community College.
