Campbell Gunn

This week I went and attended the wildland firefighter 2 (red card) course at Eastside Fire & Rescue Headquarters, in Issaquah, WA.

The course provided the following information:

• A redcard is needed to safely and legally fight any fire that is deemed a “wildfire” under WAC 296.305 – 07001-19. Classes for your redcard include the following:
• S130 – Core wildland skills class. This includes classroom and practical application
• S190 – Basic fire behavior and weather class.
• L180 – Human factors on the fireline. Includes fireline supervision and communication.
• I 100 – Introduction to Incident Command. Students will need to take the online course or provide a certificate that they have had the class previous.

The following picture is one of our Brush vehicles (BR66).

Finished the course, which consisted of written and practical test. The practical test was done our at Tiger Mountain.

Out of the course, the main thing to remember ‘safety’. The easiest is the safety seven, which consists of:

1. L – Lookouts (establish a good observation so that the whole fire area can be viewed).
2. C – Communications (ensure that the fire line teams have communication in the area and with command).
3. E – Escape Routes (when you need to get out, there is a safe way to do it, a good idea to have multiple escape routes).
4. S – Safety Zones (Ensure that there is an area that is safe to go to).
5. W – Weather (always watch the weather, temperature, wind, and humidity).
6. F – Fuels (this makes a difference on the intensity of the fire, such as sparse or dense  brush).
7. T – Topography (is the ground flat, hilly, have a lot of chimney’s where a fire can race up a mountain side).

The main book to take on a wildland fire is the Incident Response Pocket Guide or also known as the “IRPG”

Here are the front and back covers on the IRPG.