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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

More than 500 wildland firefighters training in Deer Park

Firefighters train Wednesday on how to quickly get into a fire shelter during the Eastern Washington Wildland Fire Training Academy. The training runs through Sunday at Deer Park High School. More than 500 firefighters are learning basic and advanced wildland firefighting skills in preparation for this summer’s fire season. (Colin Mulvany / The Spokesman-Review)

While hiking in Central Washington last summer, Dane Heggenes hit a blockade. A massive wildfire was creeping across the Methow Valley, incinerating practically everything in its path, and authorities said the trail was too dangerous.

Heggenes turned back and hitchhiked around the so-called Wolverine fire, which became one of the most costly in last year’s record-setting fire season.

Next time he encounters a wildfire, however, Heggenes said he won’t turn back.

“Instead of doing that, just walking around it and gawking at it, I decided I wanted to help,” he said.

This week, the 21-year-old from Whidbey Island is learning to fight wildfires at a training camp at Deer Park High School. The Eastern Washington Interagency Wildfire Training Academy has brought together more than 500 experienced firefighters and new recruits to prepare for another potentially devastating fire season.

The school now is teeming with firefighters, the hallways lined with boots and helmets. A tent city has popped up on the playing fields, and there’s a portable kitchen and mess hall on the basketball courts.

In the classrooms, men and women learn important firefighting lessons, like how to predict weather changes and navigate rough terrain. Outside, they run with loaded backpacks before diving into emergency shelters.

For some, the training is only a refresher. Others have never fought a fire.

“School got out on the 15th of this month, and we moved in on the 17th,” said Megan Hill, the public information officer for Spokane County’s Fire District 4, which encompasses Deer Park.

The camp, which runs June 18-26, represents the combined efforts of roughly a dozen agencies from many levels of government. The state Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Colville and Spokane Indian tribes are among the biggest contributors.

District 4 Chief Randy Johnson said it’s the first time so many agencies have collaborated to train firefighters in Eastern Washington. Typically, each fire department hosts its own smaller training session, called guard school, he said.

“We’ve been doing interagency guard schools since the 1990s,” Johnson said. “But to see one of this scale, that’s new.”

Training together is not only efficient, it also helps strengthen communication channels among fire departments – a major plus when multiple agencies respond to a blaze like the Wolverine fire.

“The biggest problem we run into when we’re fighting big fires is people not understanding commands,” Hill said.

If last year is any indication, the state will rely on seasonal firefighters like Heggenes in the coming months. For the remainder of the summer, he’ll be stationed with a Department of Natural Resources team in Twisp, Washington. In the fall, he’ll go to Western Washington University to pursue an ecology degree.

“September is a little bit scary for us because that’s when all our seasonal firefighters go back to school,” Hill said. “They’re really the nuts and bolts of who fights fires around here.”