Preparing for the worst

With fire season getting an early start this year and several incidents already under their belts, county firefighters gathered last week for their annual meeting and training.

"This class is what's called the annual refresher," says Fire Warden Charlie Harrison, explaining that it covers everything from escape routes to communications to ensure those aspects of the job stay uppermost in volunteers' minds.

"It all ties back to that basic safety for firefighters."

It's one of the requirements for the hundred or so volunteers that serve the county.

"We rely on the state to teach it, though we have interjected one of our county volunteers as kind of a co-instructor, which I'm trying to do to where we take on some of the training responsibilities locally," Harrison says.

The state will likely always be involved in training as an outside perspective, but Harrison hopes that Tom Lubes is just the first to take on co-responsibility.

For many of the assembled volunteers, this was the latest of many refresher courses, but for a couple of them it was a brand new experience – including a young man who hails from Pine Haven.

"He's just 18 years old and that was his first county fire training," Harrison says.

This will also be his first fire season and, if the weather continues its current dry pattern, it looks to be a busy one.

As well as the 40-acre fire in early February that was caused by an escaped burn pile and the trailer that caught fire on I-90 a few days later, Harrison says that county volunteers responded to two additional fires last week – both below an acre in size and both also caused by escaped burn piles – as well as Sunday's 400 and 1200 acre fires near New Haven and Moorcroft.

Hoping for volunteers

Some fire zones have higher participation numbers than others at this time, and the county is keen to welcome new volunteers for the season and years ahead and urges anyone who would be interested to get in touch.

"The process is really fairly easy: they'll want to go through their zone warden. Look at the map, see where you live and the phone numbers are right on our website," Harrison says.

The county's fire website can be found at crookcounty.wy.gov.

Your zone warden can let you know the schedule for their zone meetings, which are partly held to cover regular business, but are also an opportunity for individual units to train together and form the relationships that allow them to fight fire successfully as a team.

"Of course, you'll have to come to the cache to get all your equipment," he says. "If you have questions, you can always call me and I can direct you in the right direction."

New firefighters are asked to complete S-130 (basics), L-180 (human factors) and S-190 (basic fire behavior) training courses, all of which are available online.

"After you complete those, there's still a four-hour hands-on requirement," he says. This can be completed through, for example, the upcoming spring training event, and demonstrates that you have learned and understood the content of the online courses.

By the time all this is complete, says Harrison, a new firefighter has all the equipment and knowledge to head out with their team to their first fire.