Forestry puts engines through their paces

PALMER — Have you ever seen a Freightliner commercial-sized truck driven backwards? How about backwards in a figure-8?

State, federal and even some Canadian wildland firefighters did just that this week as part of the annual Alaska Engine Academy behind the division’s Mat-Su office at the Palmer airport.

“Each one of these courses is designed to get the students familiar with driving with that load of water on,” said assistant fire management officer Phil Blydenburgh, who was overseeing the class Thursday.

He said the division tries to get 20 firefighters in each class at the engine academy, which is a requirement for Forestry firefighters tasked with driving engines. This year the class drew in students from Forestry but also from federal agencies like the U.S. Forest Service and the Alaska Fire Service. Blydenburgh said there were even a couple of Canadians up from an Alberta department that was looking to set up its own engine academy.

In addition to the figure-8, students had to back up as if they were approaching a portable water tank.

“More importantly, we’re targeting getting them used to the blind spots,” Blydenburgh said. “You have to be pretty proficient with mirrors.”

In addition to the driving course, students were put through courses on water pumping and on field maintenance of the vehicles. Also Thursday, firefighters went through their yearly pack tests — a physical endurance test involving walking a set number of miles with a heavy pack in a certain amount of time. The difficulty of the test varies based on what level of certification the firefighter is seeking.

And although training and testing are still wrapping up, fire season has definitely already started. Mat-Su Fire Prevention Officer Tom Greiling pointed to smoke in the distance hanging low over an area in the Butte.

He said that in addition to fire danger, people burning in their yards can be a nuisance. That smoke was trapped and stationary, the result of a temperature inversion in the area, he said.

“If folks want to do the open burning, you need to be respectful,” Greiling said.

They also need to be safe. Greiling said that as of Thursday morning Forestry had responded to nine fires and written one citation. At least one of those fires — in a backyard in the neighborhoods south of the Parks Highway on the Palmer side — was pretty scary, and threatened homes in a neighborhood.

When a fire gets out of control, those responsible can be cited criminally with those charges leading to fines. Forestry is also tasked, in extreme cases, with trying to recover the cost of a firefighting response from the guilty party.

“A big part of our job is education, how to prevent that stuff from happening,” Greiling said.

Toward that end, he said, the division has recently made an effort to work with contractors who clear brush for construction. Greiling said he teaches a series of classes each year for those guys, training them to be their own on-site fire prevention officers.

“It saves them a lot of time, and it saves us a lot of time,” Greiling said.

And it gets the contractors on his side. He said he gets calls sometimes from guys who’ve taken the class and have spotted a burn that’s not safe.

“They’ve bought into the program,” he said.

But if your fire isn’t as big as that, you still need a permit. They’re available online at forestry.alaska.gov/burn.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.