CANYON COUNTY, Idaho — The relationship between the Bureau of Land Management and rural fire departments create training opportunities to be first responders on rural wildfires.
- BLM and rural fire departments receive the dispatch call at the same time.
- In years past, only the BLM would be called for rural fires. Now, thanks to shared training, volunteer fire departments are also dispatched, saving critical time.
- Used BLM engines and equipment are handed down to rural fire departments when applied for.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
"If we didn't have those rural protection agencies or volunteers that were out there going to these fires, because they're kind of within close proximity, we'd be looking at possibility of fires getting a little bigger," said Fire Information Chief for the Boise BLM, Chad Cline.
Cline knows how critical it is for firefighters to react quickly when a wildfire starts. That was on full display earlier this week when thunderstorms rolled through Idaho sparking nearly two dozen new fires.
I went out to the site of the 70-acre Pearl Fire northwest of Caldwell where the first ones on scene were volunteers with the Sand Hollow Fire Department. Sand Hollow contains 7,600 acres of BLM land, so I wanted to learn more about the realtionship between the BLM and these rural Idaho fire departments.
"We noticed that we needed to have that cooperation with these rural fire departments because a lot of times they were the first ones to show up on scene, on fires that were located in the rural areas on the BLM," Cline added.
BLM crews and local fire departments receive the dispatch call at the same time. The BLM trains rural fire departments and their volunteers on the same command systems, offer Southwest Idaho Fire Training through the College of Western Idaho, and pass down old engines from the BLM to the rural departments.
"So, it's a bit of recycling," I point out.
"Yeah, so we can keep that equipment that's already built operating and then we kind of have the same equipment and it also allows us to transfer over stuff like radios and fire equipment that's no longer being used so they can utilize it for the years to come," Cline concluded.
