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The six IVFD firefighters who attended the Gering wildfire training were, from left, Aaron Greene, Fay Hiykel, Dustin Harris, Josh Moreno, Mark Bomba and Rick Elliott.

Firefighters gain hands-on wildfire training in Gering

A four-state wildfire training was held in Gering over the weekend with six Imperial Volunteer firefighters attending the all-encompassing large fire practice.
“We came in as a single resource to learn tactics and techniques of a Type 3 fire incident,” said Aaron Greene, a volunteer fireman and vice-president of IVFD.
Fire incidents range from Type 5 (very small wildland fire only) to Type 1 (most complex, requiring national resources for safe and effective management and operation).
A Type 3 incident would be a multi-agency/multi-jurisdiction team for extended incidents formed and managed at the state, regional or metropolitan level.
“This training allowed us to work with other entities and accomplish certain tasks which, in addition, allowed us to bring back knowledge to share with other IVFD members,” Greene said.
In fires as large as the Type 3 training, an Incident Commander is over all planning sections of the command system structure, he said.
“A large scale event was set up in Gering for all areas of training on the command structure,” he added.
 Aircraft is not used very often locally for fire suppression, although it is available if needed.
In this case NEMA (Nebraska Emergency Management Agency) would be contacted first, Greene said.
“Our training here at home is not necessarily fully involved. We can’t just go out and set a pasture on fire just for practice,” he said.
In Gering, firefighters could train using actual fire and get larger scale fire suppression practice, he added.
Approximately 200 firefighters from 30 different cities in four states participated in the Type 3 incident training.
Over the weekend training, multiple fire engines, water tenders, helicopters and planes were used during active fire exercises in the Cedar Canyon and Buffalo Creek Wildlife Management Areas as firefighters worked to gain experience needed for wildland firefighting certifications.

 

The Imperial Republican

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PO Box 727

Imperial, NE 69033