MARCH 28, 2022:
Firefighters from at least three states met in Fort Pierre at the end of last week and over the weekend (March 24-27, 2022) for the South Dakota Wildland Fire Academy.
Training and Aviation Program Manager for South Dakota Wildland Fire Tamara Dierks says over 130 firefighters attended the classes.
She says Academy participants come from different agencies and come with differing levels of training.
Federal Bureau of Land Management Fire Management Specialist Travis Lipp says as our fire seasons get longer and more intense, there’s a need for more assistance to spread the workload.
Both Lipp and Dierks say interagency cooperation is key to wildland fire response, and when they train together, it is a lot easier to work together.
The four day event is organized by the South Dakota Department of Public Safety’s Wildland Fire Division with assistance from its federal partners.
MARCH 25, 2022:
This week and weekend (March 24-27, 2022), Fort Pierre is once again hosting the South Dakota Wildland Fire Academy.
The four day event is organized by the South Dakota Department of Public Safety’s Wildland Fire Division with assistance from its federal partners.
State Training Officer Tamara Dierks says as our fire seasons get longer and more intense, there’s a need for more assistance to spread the workload. She says Wildland Fire offers these trainings each year to support local and national wildland firefighting efforts. Interagency cooperation is key to wildland fire response, and Dierks says when they train together, it is a lot easier to work together.
Students attending the National Wildfire Coordinating Group courses must have their Incident Command System (ICS) classes up to date to receive certification. Minimum ICS courses include IS-100, Introduction to the Incident Command System and IS-700, An Introduction to the National Incident Management. Additional prerequisite qualifications or courses may be required dependent upon training level.
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