| “Fighting fires in
northwest Houston is light-years away from fighting grass fires
in rural Wyoming,” explained Jeff Wagoner, a volunteer fireman
from Campbell County Fire Department in Gillette, Wyoming. A
certified wildland firefighter for 13 years, Wagoner, along with
colleague Dale Izatt, traveled to Houston to spend a week with
his counterparts at the Ponderosa Fire Department to
learn first-hand what it’s like to fight fires in a totally
different kind of environment.
The Wyoming visitors
brought with them some impressive credentials. Wagoner, who is
married with two children, is Captain for the Gillette Station 1
and a Fire Cadet Coordinator. His training includes Fire Officer
1, Haz-mat Technician, Safety Officer, Wildland Engine Boss,
Type IV Wildland, and EMT-Basic. Dale Izatt, married with four
children, is a Spanish teacher and coaches girl’s basketball
in his “day job” and has been a volunteer with the Campbell
County Fire Department for about three years. Izatt is a
Certified Firefighter 1 and 2, a nationally certified EMT, and
has completed Haz-mat and wildland training, as well.
The exchange program is
based on an innovative concept that was started by the Volunteer
Chief’s Section of the International Association of Fire
Chiefs. The program is designed to provide an opportunity for
“seasoned” firefighters to work briefly with their peers in
other parts of the country, and to bring back information about
successful firefighting strategies and techniques that they can
incorporate into training efforts for their own volunteers. Last
summer - while the west was ablaze with wildfires — four
Ponderosa firemen traveled to Wyoming to experience wildland
(woods/brush) fire fighting in an area that encompasses 5,000
square miles.
In Wyoming, as Pond-erosa’s
exchange firefighters Jim Luplow, Dustin McDonald, Richard Reeg,
and Ray Palcic soon discovered, travel time alone to fight a
medium-sized brush fire was three hours. During their visit,
they were deployed to fight a large brush fire in the middle of
a cattle ranch that had already scorched 100 acres when they
arrived at the scene. When they fire was finally out, it had
consumed 4000 acres and had been fought by over 75 firefighters.
The contrast for the
two visiting Wyoming firemen was dramatic, and the fact that
there were few fires during their visit was a mixed blessing.
Ponderosa’s team of volunteer firefighters covers 13 square
miles — a relatively small, but highly populated residential
and commercial area. The Department’s three stations, which
are strategically located throughout the service area, respond
to approximately 120 calls each month. Some are to fight
serious, high profile fires like the recent church blaze, others
range down to thankfully minor, quickly extinguished kitchen
fires. Ponderosa’s excellent response record — an average of
six and a half minutes from the time of the call to the first
arriving apparatus — is a matter of significant pride to the
Department.
The exchange program is
one of a number of training programs that has enabled Ponderosa
Volunteer Fire Department to maintain its long-standing
reputation for innovation and community service. Recently
Ponderosa VFD received the 1999 Life Safety Achievement award
presented by the Residential Fire Safety Institute for recording
zero fire deaths in structures during that year.
“No matter how highly
trained and experienced our firefighters are,” explained
Ponderosa Fire Chief, John O’Gorman, “we can always learn
from others who have developed special and sometimes unique
skills in fighting different kinds of fires. This exchange
program provides an excellent way to accomplish this
interaction.”
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