I do not fancy myself an expert onrnwildland firefighting although Irnspent over twenty years workingrnfor a department that this type ofrnfirefighting was a big part of ourrndaily activities. We did refer tornourselves as fox-tail rangers forrnour exploits in fighting grass fires inrnthe foothills of the lower SouthernrnSierra Mountains.rnI cannot teach you how to fight arnvegetation fire in this column.rnThere are many excellent booksrnthat cover this subject and theyrnshould be in your department’srnlibrary. The books will look good inrnyour library, but you still need tornget out and get hands-on training.rnFighting wildland fires can be veryrnexciting and challenging…if yournknow what you are doing. If yourrnairport has any large fields of dryrngrass, I would highly recommendrnthat you get some wildland firefighterrntraining. If your departmentrnhas every responded to a grassrnfire, I would recommend gettingrnsome training. Every year firefightersrnare killed fighting wildlandrnfires. Some of these firesrnare in fields of grass where thernwind changed direction and thernfire overran them. (In 2015,rnthree firefighters died fighting arnfire in Washington State whenrnthe fire changed direction onrnthem and burned over them andrntheir fire engine.)rnIn closing, my friend Tony was arnfirefighter in a large municipalrnfire department in Massachusetts.rnHe was the officer on thernRescue and had received manyrnawards for pulling people out ofrnburning buildings. He came tornvisit me many years ago. Wernimmediately started talking aboutrnfirefighting. “If you can’t put arngrass fire out with the water inrnthe tank on your engine, yournneed to a find a different job!”rnI took Tony out and showed himrnthe grass fields in the foothills. Irnexplained that on a hot day, withrna hot, dry wind, this grass wouldrnact just like gasoline and once itrncaught fire, you wouldn’t be ablernto catch it.rnTony’s reply? “You guys arernnuts! I’m sticking to structurernfires, they’re safer!”
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