30
Wednesday, August 30, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
FIREFIGHTERS: UK crew
got a lot of exposure to
wildland firefighting
Continued from page 3
firefighters was really great,
they share their knowledge
with us, and we share our
experiences with them, and
it’s just a wealth of infor-
mation being exchanged.”
Hodges said.
When asked the difference
between wildland firefight-
ing and urban firefighting,
there was one overwhelm-
ing answer from all the team
members: The scale of a for-
est fire is far greater than fires
they see in the UK.
“The scale and duration of
the fire is massive, the lon-
gest fire we’ve seen burn is
around three days, and this
one has been burning for
two weeks,” Elliott told The
Nugget.
They noted that it is much
easier to manage a structure
fire because there aren’t fuels
around it that they have to
deal with; they just have a
more confined area to work
within. “We aren’t used to
handling fires of such scale
with such large teams,” said
Hodges.
“The size of the incident
management team is around
82 here, and our largest
team we would have would
be about 10,” said Station
Manager Hodge.
“The fire started when we
landed, so we’ve gotten to see
it escalate as we’ve been here
and we’ve managed to see
all aspects of the fire as well,
being on the fire line, behind
the scenes with the planning,
and seeing the command
(and) control side of things,
it’s all been really beneficial,”
said Station Manager Dean
Hodges.
“All the members of the
incident management team
and task forces have taken
the time to explain the deci-
sion-making process, as well
as explain all their roles and
what they do. Even when
they were so focused on the
development of the fire, they
still take the time to explain
their plan of attack, and why
it would be effective,” said
David Hodge.
Dean Hodges concurred:
“They are all really passion-
ate about the subject as well,
and they’ve all made us feel
really welcome.”
When asked what it was
like being on the fire line, the
team went back to the size
and scale. It was something
they had never seen before.
“Some of the tactics that
the wildland firefighters use
are ones we just don’t use
at home; we can understand
why they use them, we just
don’t require those same
tactics on a fire at home,”
said Maidment. “It takes an
PHOTO PROVIDED
The Sisters-Camp Sherman Board (Jack McGowan, Heather Johnson, Bill Rainey, Roger White and Chuck Newport) presenting a plaque recognizing their
exchange program to Station Manager David Hodge, Watch Manager Martyn Elliott, Station Manager Dean Hodges and Firefighter Daniel Maidment.
incredible amount of work
to even do a mile’s worth of
work.”
“You get to smell it, you
get to see it, you get to feel
the rush of air coming by
your legs from the undercur-
rent, the whole spectacle of it,
and the teamwork that goes
into it is an incredible thing
to see,” said Dean Hodges.
The Hampshire fire depart-
ment doesn’t really see many
wildfires in their area because
they are in a developed, urban
part of the UK that lies about
an hour southeast of London
toward the southern coast of
England. Most of the wild-
fires they see are in South
Wales. The landscape looks
very different, but they apply
some of the same principles
seen here — but on a much
smaller scale. They do some
backburning patchwork in
some of the new forests sur-
rounding them.
The UK firefighters were
very impressed by the amount
of public involvement there is
on a fire of this scale.
“The information to the
public is so transparent, when
people did ask for informa-
tion, nothing was held back.
The support from the public
is insane, the messages of
support come into the fire
station daily. It shows how
much people believe in what
the firefighters do,” said
Maidment.
“Even the people who
had been evacuated from
their homes were still posi-
tive towards the firefighters,
which a wonderful, support-
ive thing to see in a commu-
nity,” said David Hodge.
The team overall has had
a great experience just spend-
ing time outside of work
going into businesses in
town.
All of the Hampshire
firefighters concurred that
“everyone has been very wel-
coming, it’s been a wonderful
experience for all of us.”
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