Written By & Photo Credits: Britt Vickstrom
I work part-time on a farm that is being restored to native habitats. I also volunteer at Nahant Marsh Environmental Education Center. Both use prescribed burns/fires as a land management tool. I wanted to be able to better assist, and do more than be a “flapper,” a person who has a tool with a flap who helps put out small, smoldering areas along the edge of a fire.
You have to complete three courses, and pass them, before participating in a field training day. The online classes were about 25 hours long. You really need to pay attention to the slides and the voiceover. There are quizzes throughout and final exams. You only get so many times to pass each of them. The online classes are geared more toward what they are about, Wildland Fire Management, so they cover a lot than just prescribed fire/burns like we have here in Quad Cities/Midwest, all types of weather and terrains, chain of command for responding to fires, different possible flammable items and how to recognize them, equipment and vehicles for responding to fires, and lots of new and different terms, just to cover the basics of the training.
The field day was on April 17, 2021 at Albany Mounds State Historic Site. The area was planned to be burned, so it worked out well for the training day, which included people from all sorts of backgrounds, and two nearby fire departments, both for safety and to learn wildland fire techniques.
One of the things our instructor pointed out is that fire is a tool, one of many tools, for land management. A person shouldn’t do a burn just because they think it needs to be done or they want to do one. For examples, woody plants can be eaten by goats and invasive plants can be mowed or sprayed. Which best tool/s for that particular land management’s needs should be used, and it’s a reminder that fire can be dangerous, no matter how many precautions are taken. Strategies for how the burn will proceed must be agreed upon ahead of time – there are ways which provide for escape routes for animals from burn areas, but they aren’t always used. (As a vegetarian and animal lover, this was hard to process.) It was also a helpful to remember, that though that site had been planned for a burn, the purpose of the day, the objective for that burn, first and foremost, was training.
Proper clothing is very important. Due to the potential for extreme heat transferred by convection, Nomex clothing (a synthetic material that is fire resistant) and 100% cotton or wool clothing is required. Other synthetics, like spandex, can melt onto a person’s skin, even if there is no direct contact with the fire, which includes underwear, sturdy , leather boots, eye, and head protection are also required. A mask or bandana helps a lot when the wind shifts, and you’re suddenly “eating smoke.”
We each took turns with different tools for starting fires, like a drip torch, and flappers, for helping maintain the perimeter of the fire so nothing jumped the line and started an unwanted fire. It got hot. It was only April, but when the flames leap up, you definitely felt them. Keeping hydrated is vital.
It was a successful training day, and a few weeks later, we all received our certificates to assist with prescribed burns. I’m grateful for the opportunity to help with this tool for habitat and land management.
Links for coursework:
NWCG S-190, Introduction to Wildland Fire Behavior (Q0901 – S190)
https://apps.usfa.fema.gov/nfacourses/catalog/details/10623
NWCG S-130, Firefighter Training (Q0900 – S130)
https://apps.usfa.fema.gov/nfacourses/catalog/details/10622
ICS-100: An Introduction to the Incident Command System (Q0462)
https://apps.usfa.fema.gov/nfacourses/catalog/details/518
Fire Terminology https://www.fs.fed.us/nwacfire/home/terminology.html
Eagle View Group of the Sierra Club 