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Wednesday, September 5, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Hampshore Fore exchange program on thor/ year
By Ceili Cornelius
Correspondent
PHOTO BY GARY MILLER
For the third year in a row,
Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire
District is hosting firefight-
ers from Hampshire Fire and
Rescue Service in southern
England.
Returning for his third
time, Station Manager and
International Exchange
Director David Hodge came
with shift supervisors and
firefighters Dan Burden and
Rob Gargaro, who are visit-
ing Oregon for their first time.
They were training and tour-
ing Oregon with the Sisters-
Camp Sherman RFPD for two
weeks.
“It was advertised to our
department and Dan and I
were interested so we applied
amongst other applicants
to be chosen to come,” said
Gargaro.
“We are honestly shocked
to be here and so grateful, the
hospitality here is amazing,”
said Burden.
The exchange with the
two departments started with
a conversation between the
Hampshire Fire Chief and
Sisters Fire Chief Roger
Johnson at a conference in
Portland five years ago. They
found the conversations they
were having about the dif-
ferent types of firefighting in
different areas to be very ben-
eficial. They thought it would
be interesting to actually have
the two sets of fire lines do an
exchange.
“Basically, one group
learns more about urban wild-
fire fighting and one learns our
area, the more rural, big forest
fires,” said Deputy Chief Tim
Craig. “It cost us less to send
firefighters over for hands-on,
located training than tuition
of a local class on the same
things, so we love having the
exposure that furthers fire-
fighters in their careers; it
changes their mindset on how
firefighting works.”
In England, fighting large
fires is quite different because
there is less space and more
infrastructure to worry about.
“There are critical risk
areas closer to the fires we are
fighting, so we can’t afford to
have it grow larger — there is
a much more massive impact
with smaller fires than here,”
said Gargaro.
Hodge was on scene
at the massive fires in
Manchester earlier this year.
In Manchester, hot spots
would seep into the deep peat
moss that exists on the land-
scape and had to be dug out
and put out. The environment
and climate is different there.
However, many of the skills
are transferrable, and some
of the experiences have had a
direct impact at home.
Last year, the Hampshire
firefighters arrived in the
midst of Sisters’ Milli Fire.
Hodge said he enjoyed
being able to be on a big inci-
dent and see the incident man-
agement team in action.
“It is what we come here to
do and see, not that we would
wish another one of those fires
on Sisters; we do come here to
be on incidents and that’s why
we come at this time of year
as well,” said Hodge.
“While in Manchester I
got to work with an incident
management team, much like
I did here in Central Oregon
last year, so I knew how that
process worked,” said Hodge.
“In Manchester, we also had
aerial attack which is much
rarer there. I was able to use
a lot of the management skills
I learned here, on that fire
scene.”
Training started for
Gargaro and Burden before
they arrived in Oregon. They
started with doing online,
simulated wildland firefight-
ing training.
“The online training is
very similar basics to what
we know, we are just put in
different environments,” said
Burden.
“We have a lot of the foun-
dational skills already that we
just build upon,” said Gargaro.
“The new stuff wasn’t dif-
ficult to learn and we enjoy
getting to see how and learn
how different fuels burn and
consolidating what we already
know about it,” said Burden.
They began their hands-
on training last week which
includes, digging lines and
pulling hose lines. They will
learn the key differences
in structure fighting, given
that homes and structures
are much newer and differ-
ently designed than those in
England.
“The three will also be
going up to Portland one of
the weeks to conduct training
with a department up there to
learn the urban, condensed
firefighting in an Oregon
city,” said Craig.
“We look forward to learn-
ing the key differences and
then applying the skills we
learn to the firefighting we
do in our environments,” said
Gargaro.
Tuesday afternoon, August
28, the crew went up to the
Terwilliger Fire in Blue River
to get some hands-on work,
and learning on the change-
over in operational incident
management teams.
“The day we headed up
there we were able to see what
PHOTO PROVIDED
Firefighters from Hampshire in southern England have visited Sisters for
the past three years, gaining hands-on wildland experience.
it looks like when one team
leaves the fire and another
comes in, an important aspect
for these firefighters, given
they are operational manag-
ers,” said Craig.
Hodge and the others
could not speak enough of the
appreciation for the hospital-
ity the community has shown
them, as well as the hospitality
of the Sisters-Camp Sherman
Fire District. “You can tell
the hospitality is genuine and
people are so respectful here,”
said Gargaro.
“I just want to reinforce
that people in the Sisters
community are special and
respectful, and coming from
the other side of the pond,
it is refreshing to see,” said
Hodge.
Said Gargaro, with the
agreement of his colleagues,
“I think the residents should
be very proud of their fire
department.”
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