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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (July 15, 2016)
S moke S ignals JULY 15, 2016 13 Tribal firefighters experience boot camp By Brent Merrill Smoke Signals staff writer Each year, just before fire season starts, the Natural Resources De- partment holds a boot camp for its firefighters. Silviculture and Fire Protection Manager Colby Drake said boot camp started when Police Chief Jake McKnight was supervising the fire crews for the Natural Resources Department. “It’s a chance to see where guys are at when it comes to being in shape and being ready for fire sea- son,” said Drake. “And we are also trying to get everybody a chance to know each other.” McKnight said he looked at boot camp as a way to gauge everyone’s skills. “My main thing was to bring everyone to- gether,” said McK- night. “Before that we wouldn’t know the limitations of people until we were out on fires. With the boot camp, I wanted to see their limitations. I think the biggest thing was people got to know each other.” Drake said the boot camp gives supervisors an idea who should be on hand crews and who should be on the trucks. “We are just wanting to see where our guys are at (physically),” said Drake. “We’re also trying to get them in the right frame of mind. We’re trying to get people to know each other and build some camara- derie together.” Drake said the first day of boot camp is filled with paperwork and getting the rundown on the job from staff members at Human Re- sources and that the second day is all hiking. “Tuesday, Wednesday and Thurs- day we start doing field exercises, which, depending on conditions, can be a mock fire drill or digging a fire line,” said Drake. “We have to follow national standards. Those national standards are what keep our fire program to the level of accreditation that we’re at. It’s a hard job.” Fire Protection Technician Jay Ojua leads the boot campers on training hikes to see what kind of Photos by Michelle Alaimo Caden Leno digs a fire line, along with other hand crew members, as the Grand Ronde Tribe’s Wildland Firefighters train on the Tribe’s Reservation land during a boot camp held on Wednesday, June 15. At left, Grand Ronde Tribal Wildland Firefighters take notes as they get information before digging a fire line on the Tribe’s Reservation land during the boot camp. shape crew members are in. “After we get all the paperwork done and all the gear assigned and the lockers assignments figured out, I take them hiking on the roads behind the Natural Resources De- partment,” said Ojua. “I hiked them really hard the second day.” Drake said boot camp is about gauging everybody’s fitness level and how crew members interact with each other. After everyone is assessed, hand crews are selected. “It’s a big deal for everybody. Everybody wants to be on the first hand crew,” said Drake. “It’s the best of the best.” Drake said the department plans for boot camp all year. “Boot camp is a big week for us,” said Drake. “We are always plan- ning for it. I feel like we are always looking for ways to improve it.” Drake said that by the time Fri- day of boot week camp arrives, fire Adult Members’ Trust and Minors’ Custodial & Rabbi Trust Funds Investments in the Adult Members’ Trust Fund and the Minors’ Custodial and Rabbi Trust Funds are updated each business day. If you are a trust participant and/or if you are the parent/guard- ian of a minor member, you can access and review your balance and your minor child’s balance by visiting www.401Save.com. To log-in, the initial User ID is your (or your child’s) Social Se- curity number, and the initial Password is “00” followed by your (or your child’s) membership number. Once logged in, you can customize your User ID and password for security purposes. If you have any trouble logging in to or using the system, contact the 401Save Call Center at 1-888-700-0808 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Pacific Time, Monday through Friday. crew members are ready to go out and fight fires. “By Friday, we have all of our gear organized and ready to get loaded up in the trucks and we usu- ally have our crew available by that Friday for a national response any- where in the country,” said Drake. “As soon as we get boot camp week done and accomplished, the sooner we can become available and we kind of get a head start on a lot of the federal agencies.” It was a good thing that the fire crew got ready early this year because the Natural Resources Department already has a fire crew out on a job. “We made the crew available Thursday and we got picked up by Sunday morning,” said Drake. “We have a crew heading to southern California. They got assigned to the Fish fire in the Angeles National Forest outside of Los Angeles.” Hundreds of firefighters from the Los Angeles County Fire Depart- ment and Forest Service spent the early days of the 5,400-acre forest fire battling a pair of brush fires in the foothills and mountains of the San Gabriel Valley amid tri- ple-digit temperatures. The hand crew from Grand Ronde joined forces with the firefighters already battling the blaze. A fatal car crash on California Highway 39 near Morris Dam sparked the fire. “We have never had any crew or any engines ever go to southern California,” said Drake. “We sent a 20-person hand crew that included seven Tribal members. They left Grand Ronde Sunday at 1 p.m.” Drake said it is a 14-day assign- ment that started on Monday, June 21. Drake said boot camp this year was a success and that Natural Re- sources ended up with a 35-person crew. He said four of the crew mem- bers were new to the team this year. “Overall I think it went pretty well,” said Drake. “Our new people look really good.” McKnight said he was happy that the Tribe’s Natural Resources Department kept the boot camp program going. “I’m glad that it has continued and that Colby has done a great job of just carrying on all those traditions,” said McKnight. “I think without boot camp it would be tougher. I think it’s good.”
