Live fire: Central Oregon firefighters train on Crooked River Natl. Grassland, ahead of another fire season

(Update: Adding video, comments from Sunriver deputy chief, Ochoco National Forest public affairs officer)

'We want to do this when it's warm, but not in the heat of fire season'

PRINEVILLE, Ore. (KTVZ) -- The Central Oregon Fire Management Service partnered with local structural firefighting departments around the region Wednesday to provide an immersive scenario-based wild land firefighting program on the Crooked River National Grassland.

The training is designed to improve communication between agencies and enhance firefighters’ understanding of wildland firefighting suppression tactics, mutual aid and the dynamics of interagency response in an emerging wildfire incident.

"This is a really great interagency opportunity for both wild land firefighters and our structural firefighter counterparts" Ochoco National Forest/Crooked River Grassland Public Affairs Officer Kassidy Kern said Wednesday.

"Structural" firefighters usually are involved in extinguishing building fires, while wildland firefighters are called for wildfires in forests and other terrain.

The training is designed to improve communication between agencies and enhance firefighters' understanding of wild land firefighting tactics.

"So this is a controlled environment," Kern said. "But it gives them that opportunity to know how to call into dispatch, to work on their suppression techniques, communicate with each other in the way that they would if they were responding to a brush fire outside of their municipalities."

The three-day course began with time in the classroom, to familiarize participants with wildland firefighting procedures, communications and tools, followed by two days of live-fire response exercises.

The live-fire portions of the course took place Monday and Wednesday on the Crooked River National Grassland along Highway 26 near Grizzly Mountain, northwest of Prineville.

Dead juniper trees, along with surrounding sagebrush, were used to help ignite the small fires.

Sunriver Fire Department Deputy Chief Rod Bjorvik says fire training like this helps all firefighters prepare for a wildfire scenario.

"Being out here and training live fire, it really enhances that skill set, mkes the participants more safer and efficient firefighters," he said.

The live-fire training helps structural firefighters learn the basics of putting out a wildfire. "Installing hose lays, digging hand lines, mopping up. Those kind of basic things, they get practice as well," Bjorvik explained.

Kern said the trick is to get the right conditions: "We want to do this when it's warm, but not in the heat of fire season. We need to have this kind of stuff dialed in before we're in July, August, September, when we know we're going to get those fires."

Fire managers planned to ignite several small fires for the participants to respond to and suppress. While the entire unit is 248 acres, fire managers anticipate that only 12-15 acres were to be used during the exercise, with smoke visible from the surrounding areas. Over 100 participants from fire departments ranging from Crescent to Warm Springs were in attendance.

The Central Oregon Wildfire School, initially developed in the 1990s, has been intermittently held over the years. The most recent iteration, beginning in 2018, revitalized and improved the program enhancing the live fire format with critical skills education.

The program serves as a collaborative effort among local agencies to foster, develop and sustain cooperator relationships while increasing knowledge around wildfire response. This amplified understanding of wildfire response strengthens and increases the success rate of diminishing catastrophic wildfire in Central Oregon.

Agencies involved in the planning and hosting of the training include the Ochoco National Forest and Crooked River National Grassland, Sunriver Fire Department, Bend Fire Department, Bureau of Land Management – Prineville District, Deschutes National Forest, Oregon Department for Forestry, Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, Oregon Office of State Fire Marshal, and Redmond Fire Department.

The live-fire exercises give participants the opportunity to respond to a wildfire scenario while practicing dispatch protocol, fireline construction, hose lay implementation and interagency communication. While no road or trail closures were anticipated, officials advised that forest users traveling along Highway 26 near Grizzly Mountain would see smoke, as would travelers on Highway 97.  Prescribed fire signs were posted along Highway 26, but delays were not anticipated.