School feeds demand for firefighters [wildland fires]

Scott Coleman is talking about the weather - and knows exactly how to relate it to his audience.

"You know what killed the Prineville Hotshots?" he asks a crowded room of would-be forest firefighters. "A cold front. A weather event."

No one among the 60-plus students, sitting in a portable classroom Wednesday, asks for clarification. Everyone knows Coleman is referring to the 14 elite firefighters from Prineville who died in a 1994 blaze on Colorado's Storm King Mountain.

Storm King is burning again this week, and the firefighting wannabes - Coleman calls them "baby firefighters" - know all too well that they could be on the fire line sooner instead of later.

"I'll be shipping some of these kids out on Friday," says Coleman, "probably to Colorado or New Mexico."

Dylan Price, a 21-year-old from Corvallis, hopes he's one of them. Price grew up in Glenwood Springs, Colo., a town 150 miles west of Denver that already has lost 28 homes to wildfire this week.

Price may get his chance, assuming he completes the three-day training course held at the Skookum Reforestation offices just off Highway 99 north of Eugene.

Coleman helped found Skookum in 1973 as a tree-planting cooperative. Today, Skookum devotes about 80 percent of its efforts to training fire crews who are then called on by the U.S. Forest Service and other federal and state agencies to help battle blazes across the West.

Skookum has seven crews fighting fires in Colorado and elsewhere, and Coleman expects to be training new prospects throughout the summer. While the forecast calls for a modest fire season in Oregon, other states may not be so fortunate.

"I predict we'll have the National Guard and military (fighting fires) before long," Coleman says. "(The agencies) will be calling us, `Do you have any more? Do you have any more?' "

Coleman should have some more come Friday - after students complete a written test this afternoon and spend a few hours working with fire tools this evening. The prospective firefighters must also pass a pack test: Walk three miles carrying a 45-pound pack in less than 45 minutes, no jogging or running allowed.

Coleman says this week's class seems unusually attentive and focused - probably because the daily news has impressed upon them how quickly they could be sent out to a real fire.

While candidates from all walks of life enroll, Coleman relies heavily on students from the University of Oregon and other colleges who have just completed their school year. "They make good firefighters," he says. "They want summer jobs and they never say no. Plus, you want smart people out there."

In the classroom, Coleman and two assistants teach about tools and terminology, techniques, weather, wind and topography. The classroom instruction concludes with a survival segment where students brainstorm how to respond to various wildfire scenarios.

Coleman has a friendly but direct teaching style, happily peppering students with rapid-fire questions. "What's the fire triangle?" "What's the jet stream?" "What's a rill? A knob? A swale?"

Not afraid to jerk some chains, Coleman at one point solemnly reminds the students that they're facing a "tough, tough test - only about 5 percent ever pass it." In truth, less than 5 percent fail either the written or physical test, he says.

No Skookum-trained firefighter has ever died on a fire line, but Coleman says he still gets nervous every time he sends out first-timers. Even well-conditioned candidates aren't always prepared, he says, "for the steepness of the terrain, or the 12-to-20-hour, on-your-feet-all-the-time shifts."

The students, of course, come for the excitement and the challenge - and the money. A novice firefighter earns a modest $8.54 an hour - but can rack up as much as $1,000 a week once overtime kicks in. That's because firefighters can average 60 to 100 hours a week in a "good" fire season.

Money aside, there's at least as much apprehension as bravado in Coleman's room. Patrick Clancey, a 19-year-old from Eugene, leafs through one of the handouts - a booklet titled "Your Fire Shelter" - and says he recognizes the job has inherent risks.

"If you dwell on the fact that you're in constant danger, it's not too fun an occupation," he says. "It's just something to keep in the back of your mind."

"I think it's going to be an extreme challenge for me, physically and mentally, but I love that kind of stuff," says Margaret Coey, who graduated Saturday from Oakridge High School and is one of five women in the class.

"Everyone says, `You're either going to love it or hate it,' so I'm curious to see which way I go."

OREGON FORECAST: Average or lower-than-average season, especially in high elevations, because of big winter snowpack. Average season in lowlands, grasslands, valleys. One high-risk area: John Day River drainage. Agencies predict 100,000 acres could burn in Oregon and Washington this year, compared with more than 700,000 last year.

FIREFIGHTING TRAINING: Call Skookum Reforestation, 688-1900, for more information - Northwest Interagency Coordinating Center, Portland

I am dusgusted by this article. Scott Coleman (his picture is in the source link) was a hotshot leader of the anti-war movement on the University of Oregobn campus in the early seventies.

Many in the counter-culture took refuge in woods work. The Hoedads for example had lesbian only crews, and smoking canabis used to be normal to do infront of a Forest Service inspecter on an average tree planting show.

I worked for Coleman as a squadboss on fires. I never was promoted to crewboss (become an 'SRB' vs. a 'T-1'.

I finally got discouraged and stopped working for him. He hates veterans; he feels he does good if he hires you in spite of your military experiance. He doesn't like older workers, (I am forty eight), and he really pushes getting Mexicans.

He has re-made training tapes and textbooks into Spanish - something the government has not even done yet - and most of the crew bosses hired instead of me were born and raised in Mexico.

I better leave my comments at this, or it will turn into an angry rant.

Just thought I would explain that in terms of price per man hour, Skookum is the cheapest show the government can hire. Wages are kept low, and workers are told they make less hourly, but they can expect more work.

Skookum crews are first to a fire, and some of the last crews to demobilize because they cost less.

Poignant comments like yours are what makes Free Republic the great forum that it is. Thanks so much.

Lest we forget the young firefighters who were sacrificed on the altar enscribed "EPA": Firefighters who were there tell the story of the deadly Thirty Mile blaze: 'It's snowing fire

Thanks for your kind words. I have been out on the line for twenty-one days without any rest days. And days on the fireline are typically twelve hours long.

I attended many courses relating to this job (like fire behavior for example) without any pay, and tried to do a good job.

Often, as these are people hired as warm bodies off the street, you wind up dealing with druggies and weirdos.

In other words, even in firecamp, you are watching these people closely, as you just don't know many of them. And it's better you find an idiot hunting for an 'eightball' of cocaine before the Forest Service Law Enforcement do.

I will be going out on fires again, but it will be for Oregon Woods, and unfortunately it will be as a grunt, as Orgon Woods is full up of many other former Skookum workers.

Just to give you an idea of the morale problem at Skookum, a government firecrew raided Scott's firebosses and squadbosses. Fifteen people jumped ship six weeks ago leaving Skookum predominantly Hispanic.

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