| Contact Information | Date |
|---|---|
| For Immediate Release Contact: Rich Reuse 434.962.3408 or 804.840.2042 |
June 2, 2010 VDOF 10019 |
Hundreds of Firefighters Train in Farmville;
VDOF Wildland Fire Academy Begins Today
More than 300 firefighters from across the Commonwealth and in neighboring states will be taking a variety of courses designed to better prepare them for the challenges and dangers associated with suppressing wildfires. The week-long program begins today at the annual Virginia Interagency Wildland Fire Academy at Longwood University.
“This is the largest and most comprehensive training program we do,” said State Forester of Virginia Carl Garrison. “With financial support provided by the National Park Service, we are able to bring together hundreds of paid and volunteer firefighters, who are already outstanding structural firefighters, and teach them everything from the basics of wildland firefighting to the use of chain saws and fire plows to advanced tactics and leadership.”
In addition to the structural firefighters, a number of “students” at the academy come from the Virginia Department of Forestry (VDOF) and three other state agencies (Department of Conservation and Recreation, Department of Corrections, and the Virginia National Guard), as well as two federal agencies - the US Forest Service (USFS) and the National Park Service (NPS). The 65 instructors at the Academy hail from numerous federal (USFS, USF&WS, NPS) and state (VDOF, DCR, Va. Dept. of Fire Programs, Maryland Forest Service) agencies as well as The Nature Conservancy, the Chesterfield County Fire Department, the North Garden FD, Rockingham Fire & Rescue, and Shenandoah Fire & Rescue.
While many of the courses are classroom based, several involve field work. These include: the chainsaw operations course, where participants learn how to properly fell trees during a wildfire, and the bulldozer/fireplow course, where participants operate these important pieces of heavy equipment over and through a variety of obstacles they will encounter in the woods. In addition to the obstacle course they work through during the day, “students” in this course also will attack and suppress - using only their bulldozer/fireplows - a real wildfire at night as part of the program.
“It takes a special kind of person to put himself or herself on a slow-moving bulldozer and drive off into the forest at night with acres and acres of flames all around in order to protect the lives and property of Virginia's citizens,” said Garrison. “Words fail to adequately describe the experience.”
New this year is the Academy scholarship program that was established to honor the memory of Alex Williamson, who was killed earlier this year in a tragic car accident. Williamson was the VDOF's chief forest warden in Halifax County for more than 35 years who trained hundreds of firefighters during his distinguished career. Catherine Lilly of Roanoke and Matthew King of Stafford are the first two recipients of the Williamson scholarship and are attending the Academy free of charge.
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The Virginia Department of Forestry protects and develops healthy, sustainable forest resources for Virginians. Headquartered in Charlottesville, the Agency has forestry staff members assigned to every county to provide service to citizens of the Commonwealth. VDOF is an equal opportunity provider.
With nearly 16 million acres of forestland and more than 144,000 Virginians employed in forestry, forest products and related industries, Virginia forests provide more than $27.5 Billion annually in benefits to the Commonwealth.
