Delaware Fire Service to hold 19th Annual Fire Camp April 26

The Delaware Forest Service will hold its 19th Annual Fire Camp, an intensive one-day seminar to train volunteers in wildland firefighting, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, April 26, rain or shine at Redden State Forest, 18074 E. Redden Road, Georgetown.

Fire Camp marks the capstone of the Delaware Forest Service’s annual training cycle to ready its wildland firefighters for the upcoming summer fire season. The intensive, one-day course serves as a necessary prerequisite for firefighters to achieve yearly red-card certification from the National Wildfire Coordinating Group to serve on out-of-state fire assignments

Delaware’s crew is a well-regarded unit that has seen regular action battling blazes in the western United States since 1998. In 2013, Delaware dispatched a 20-person crew to an 85,000-acre blaze near North Pole, Alaska, as well as a subsequent crew that served a two-week assignment fighting wildfires near Terra, Utah, and Riggins, Idaho.

The one-day seminar provides potential crew members with hands-on instruction in several key areas: wildfire suppression techniques, the influence of weather on fire behavior, crew mobilization and teamwork, pump and power saw usage, and most importantly, how to apply their experience to a “live” simulated fire situation.

In addition to training sessions and the live burn, many participants will also be completing an arduous work capacity or pack test, which calls for hauling a 45-pound pack over a three-mile course in less than 45 minutes. Passing this test is a required component of NWCG certification.

The timing and location of the “live burn” is subject to change based on actual weather conditions.  Call Redden State Forest at 302-856-2893.