Tanker 463; Fire Season 2017

Tanker 463; Fire Season 2017
Photo by Bill Barr - CLICK ME!

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

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.   

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