USU trains the next generation of firefighters
Rising temperatures, drying climates and extreme droughts — these conditions have plagued much of the Western U.S. in recent years, creating the ideal environment for fire to thrive. As wildfire risk rises, so too has the need for dedicated firefighters.
Utah State University has recently approved a new firefighting training program for university credit, titled WILD 2450: Wildland Fire Operations. Sponsored by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, the course launched on Jan. 9 and will continue until early April, when students will finish with all the knowledge necessary to begin fighting fires.
The program is led by Brad Washa, an assistant professor of wildland fire science and partly by the USU Wildland Fire Club.
“There’s three courses,” Washa said. “The first one is an introduction to wildland fire behavior.”
This introductory course explores the anatomy of a wildfire and teaches students terminology used in the field. Students will hear from a meteorologist who will explain the Fire Behavior Triangle, made up of fuels, weather and topography.
“You learn fire orders to watch out for and situations you should be keying into,” Washa said. “Like if the fire behavior is getting worse or if the relative humidity is going down, you’re going to start seeing fire behavior increase and you might have to adjust your tactics.”
According to the National Park Service, fuels low in moisture and made up of oils such as dead trees and shrubs. weather conditions like strong winds and low humidity;and steeply sloped topography can create the perfect condition for uncontrollable fires.
The next course is the S130 Wildland Firefighter Training course. “This is basically how you fight a fire and do it safely,“ Washa said.
It includes a 22-hour online portion, made up of 12 modules that explain all of the skills students will need to perform on the eight-hour field exercise at the end of the course. Topics include lookouts, escape routes and safety zones, as well as skills like constructing a fireline and extinguishing a fire with or without water.
The program concludes in its final course L180: Human Factors in The Wildland Fire Service, which focuses on quick thinking, decision-making, hazard identification and team cohesion. Students will embody a fire crew member through a variety of scenarios in an online, interactive simulation to test their skills.
Brad Washa presents at the Wildland Fire Operations Training on Jan. 9 in the Natural Resources building.
Washa recommended this program for any student interested in learning about wildland fires or working in fire management.
“You don’t necessarily have to have an interest in natural resources,” Washa said. “A number of the kids taking the class are not QCNR students. There’s a psychology major and an IT student. You don’t need that natural resources background to be a firefighter.”
Washa, whose fire experience spans more than 400 wildfires and 33 years both on the ground and in management, did not initially plan on going into fire management.
“I had actually planned on going to law school and into environmental law,” Washa said. “Between my junior and senior year of college, I got a job with the Helitack Crew at Mesa Verde National Park, and I really liked it. I decided I wanted to pursue that for a graduate degree.”
Washa spent two summers as part of Mesa Verde’s Helitack crew, a team of firefighters transported via helicopter. He would go on to serve in roles such as incident commander and chair of Utah’s Prescribed Fire Council.
“I did a semester of graduate school at University of Wisconsin, but then I also knew I wanted to go west,” Washa said. “Fire in the east is a lot different than in the west — it’s not as large and exciting.”
Firefighting can be as fulfilling as it is frightening, Washa said. He described it as an inherently dangerous career in which homes and lives can be lost or saved.
“I was on a fire where I had to call the Colorado Springs Fire Department and tell them we weren’t going to hold the fire, and we lost over 360 homes and had two fatalities,” Washa said. “The next fire I was on we were able to hold at the edge of the town because of a bunch of work we put in. There’s great memories like that to just the camaraderie you form.”
Firefighting can take a serious toll on mental health. According to a 2022 National Intitutions of Health review, conditions such as PTSD and anxiety are ongoing issues affecting firefighters.
“You do need to detach yourself from some of the emotional aspects of fire, otherwise it’s going to eat you alive,” Washa said. “You go out there, try and do your best and not get anybody injured and realize that fire is a very dynamic environment.”
Students near the Logan campus can get further experience with the operations of actual fire departments via USU’s Wildland Fire Club.
“Fire, in some ways, resembles the military and in other ways, it doesn’t, but it is very structured,” Washa said. “From the firefighter on the ground to the incident commander, we’ve actually adopted that within the Fire Club. Instead of a president, we have an incident commander. Instead of a secretary we have a plan section chief — things like that to mimic what the fire organization looks like.”
Kyle Hamilton is a fourth-year forest ecology and management student and the president of the club. The club connects students with firefighting opportunities and events while also learning about fire ecology in partnership with USU’s Fire Ecology Lab.
“The idea of our course and club is to provide access and let people know the courses are out there,” Hamilton said. “We run it as a facilitation so it’s more self-led, but it’s also a group where you can come together, ask questions and meet other people.”
Hamilton helped test the course before it was approved for credit for this semester and later worked with the Forest Service Wildland Fire Module Unit. The WFM unit manages and monitors fires or potential fire hazards.
“When I first started the course, I knew next to nothing about fire,” Hamilton said. “I thought the course was a great introduction to just learning the jargon and was a crash course to all the topics.”
The program’s hybrid approach allows students to complete large portions of the courses online while still engaging physically with all the practical skills of firefighting.
“I think the most valuable part is interacting face to face,” Hamilton said. “Being on a computer screen is one thing, but if you can talk to Brad, who spent 30 years doing fire and working with the Logan Interagency Hotshot Crew — one of our local resources — things start to click.”
At the end of the program, students are awarded a certificate of completion, qualifying them to become firefighters upon successful completion of the Physical Ability Test and possession of an Incident Qualification Card.
“Having all the work done ahead of time really set the groundwork for me,” Hamilton said. “As soon as I started with the Forest Service, everything was streamlined. I just showed them my certificates, and they were like, ‘All right, looks good.’ I took my PAT test, and things were all set.”
Hamilton urges students considering the course not to feel intimidated.
“You see videos of people’s houses going up in flames — whole forests getting swept away, and stuff like that can be scary,” Hamilton said. “But there’s really a system set up to teach you everything you need to know, and things are being done the right way.”
For firefighters, tight-knit bonds are forged through shared experiences.
“The best part about fire and the people who work in fire is the sense of community,” Hamilton said. “Everyone’s there to help you along. A lot of people get into fire because they love it and love the lifestyle and are really open and willing to help you out.”
Images of skies shrouded in black smoke and buildings engulfed in bright white flames have dominated recent headlines as the Los Angeles fires continue to burn as of Jan. 16. The devastation of fire and the critical role of firefighters has been widely felt as LA grapples with a lack of resources and disastrous fire conditions.
“There’s definitely a need for firefighters nationwide,” Washa said. “When I first started out, you wouldn’t hear about fires in California in the middle of January. We’ve gone from fire seasons to a fire year.”
According to global trends of forest loss report from the University of Maryland, area claimed by wildfire has increased by 5.4% annually from 2001 to 2023, with 2020, 2021 and 2023 ranking as the worst years for forest fires. The need for firefighters will only continue to grow, as rising global temperatures continue to fuel fires.
The program’s hybrid, comprehensive approach aims to get interested individuals on the field and fighting fires.
“Courses like this give people hands-on learning, so they have not just the academic knowledge but the practical knowledge to go into a job,” Washa said. “I think it’s a great opportunity for students.”
Brad Washa Wildland Fire Operations students during a field exercise in April, 2024.