Course Announcement - Operational Leadership Academy

Operational Leadership Academy 2017

October 2-6, 2017

Moshannon State Forest Maintenance Headquarters

This training is required for Crew Bosses, Crew Boss Trainees, Incident Commander Type 5's, Incident Commander Type 5 Trainees, Firefighter Type 1 and Firefighter Type 1 Trainees. This training is sponsored by the Division of Forest Fire Protection.

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course provides intermediate instruction on leadership, strategy, tactics, and required skills of an ICT5 while working in a Type 2 Initial Attack configuration. Field exercises and scenarios give students experience in current and evolving duties of an ICT5. The training will be run as an initial attack detail wherein the students will be required to spike out and stay on site for the duration of the training.

OBJECTIVES:

• Demonstrate proficiencies in the skills needed to perform at the ICT5 level effectively and efficiently
• Instill confidence in individuals enabling them to lead in situations that are common on a fire assignment
• Demonstrate the fundamental leadership principles
• Provide students with experience mentoring squad members
• Demonstrate techniques for surviving in remote situations.

NAMES ARE DUE JULY 3, 2017

Click here to sign-up

You will be notified by email if you are chosen for the academy.

Reminders:

• All Bureau of Forestry personnel MUST have the approval of their supervisor before registering. 
• The Division of Forest Fire Protection will cover travel cost for Bureau of Forestry personnel.
• Pre-Course Work: Students will be sent pre-course work.

PREREQUISITES: Must be qualified as at least one of the following: Crew Bosses (CRWB), Crew Boss Trainees (CRWB (T)), Incindent Commander Type 5 (ICT5), Incident Commander Type 5 Trainees (ICT5 (T)), Firefighter Type 1 (FFT1) and Firefighter Type 1 Trainees (FFT1 (T)).

 

Course Announcement - 2017 Fall Fire Academy

2017 Fall Fire Academy

October 23, 2017 (10:00 AM) thru October 27, 2017 (12:00 PM)

Join us for the 2017 Fall Fire Academy in the Pinchot Forest District (11). The location is currently TO BE DETERMINED, and you will be notified of the final location.

Courses offered at this Academy are listed below:

S-130 Firefighter Training Oct 23, 2017
S-190 Intermediate Wildland Fire Behavior Oct 24 - 27, 2017
S-215 Fire Operations in Wildland/Urban Interface Oct 23 - 26, 2017
S-219 Firing Operations Oct 25 - 27, 2017
S-212 Wildland Fire Chainsaws Oct 23 - 27, 2017
L-280 Followership to Leadership Oct 23 - 25, 2017

Pre-requisites The S-215 and S-219 courses require students to complete the S-130 and S-190 courses before registering

NAMES ARE DUE BY JULY 28TH, 2017

Registering for a class does not guarantee placement in the class! You will be notified by August 11, 2017 as to whether or not you have been selected as a student.

Click here to sign-up.

Some reminders:

• All Bureau of Forestry personnel MUST have the approval of their supervisor before registering. 
• Overtime is not authorized for this training. 
• The Division of Forest Fire Protection will cover travel cost for Bureau of Forestry personnel. 

Please take note: the S-212 and the S-130 will run a little later on Monday (1800) and Friday (1600).

Introductory Post

What is the purpose of this blog?

Is it satire, informational, personal or educational? Maybe it’s a little bit of all of that. The end goal for this blog is to provide its followers with information about our organization, training and maybe even a little bit of our history. The goal here isn’t to exclude anyone, so if you’ve found this blog because your local Fire Warden directed you here, you found us via an informational route or you found a link to here after watching YouTube for longer than that “How-to use a Pallet Practically” video really needed – WELCOME!

Who are “WE”?

Formally, we are Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Forestry, Division of Forest Fire Protection. To save typing I’ll more likely be referring to us as FFP after mentioning full title once. Honestly though, would YOU want to keep repeating that full title in a conversation? Didn’t think so.

There are approximately 17 MILLION acres of wildlands (public and private) that the Bureau is responsible for protecting. We do that through a combination of suppression, prevention and investigation; we also coordinate with volunteer fire departments and fire wardens to make this possible.

Katie Thomas

I am one of the main authors of this blog; I am a Forest Technician working for FFP. I work out of the Hazleton Air Tanker base. Most of the time I am the one dispatching the SEATs to fires. Right out of high school I joined the Marine Corps where I trained not only to be skilled with a rifle, but to be skilled with words. I was a Combat Correspondent (Public Affairs) while I was enlisted. My job consisted of writing articles and accompanying photos for the base newspaper. After I got out I went to school for the required 15 credits to become a park ranger, but it turned out I really liked forestry and finished my Associates Degree before trying to get a position with the state. I started out working as a Ranger 1 in parks, but moved to my current position shortly after starting with parks. Now I’ve found a job I love, and look forward to the new opportunities provided in FFP.

When I write something from personal experience on here my name will be tagged in the post.