Fire Management

Three of the 28 teams on the AmeriCorps NCCC Denver campus are designated fire management teams.  The members of these teams spend time in training to become certified type  two wild land firefighters and spend their 2nd and 4th round projects dealing with fire.  Mostly fire mitigation, but also with the possibility of actually fighting fires.

Due to the nature of the work, AmeriCorps members must apply and be chosen to be on these teams.  As you know from my last post, I am on one of these teams.  Pretty crazy, huh!?

There were a few different facets of the application process.  Physical testing, an interview, as well as an essay.  The physical testing consisted of two minutes each of sit ups, push ups as well as a 1 mile run.  Believe it or not, I actually did 17 push ups.  The interview was with Vaughn, the Sun unit director, and Nick, the sun unit fire management team leader.

After making the team our next step was the pack test.  The pack test is one of the qualifications to becoming a type 2 certified wild land firefighter.  It consisted of a 3 mile walk with a 45 lb. pack on our backs with a 45 minute time limit.  We headed to Golden, CO yesterday to take our tests at Colorado School of Mines.  I passed!  I crossed the finish line in 41:01.  Time to spare.

Now, I just know some of you are asking yourself why I ever decided to apply to do this.  Well, let me tell you!

I applied to AmeriCorps NCCC with the hope of getting some disaster relief experience.   AmeriCorps NCCC teams have been deployed to do disaster relief for every major disaster for a number of years.  Who actually responds to disaster is chosen somewhat methodically and somewhat randomly.  After learning more about the fire management teams and what they do, I realized that they do a type of disaster relief with their work.

Much of what I will be doing 2nd and 4th round with be fire mitigation.  I figure preventing a fire before it happens and gets out of control to a disaster state is a pretty worthwhile thing to be doing.  Also, the potential 4th round (fire season) to actually put a fire out is pretty neat.  Preventing a fire from getting out of control is also pretty worthwhile in my opinion.