BLY, Ore. – Wildland firefighters from South Central Oregon Fire Management Partnership conducted preparedness exercises just north of Bly today [July 3, 2018].

SCOFMP fire managers conducted their annual preparedness review to further hone their firefighters’ skills and enhance their abilities to work together as a team.

Participants were from all five agencies of SCOFMP, Oregon Department of Forestry Klamath-Lake District; Fremont-Winema National Forest; Bureau of Land Management Lakeview District; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Sheldon-Hart Mountain National Wildlife Refuge Complex; and National Park Service Crater Lake National Park.

“We like to train alongside each other [and] this is a good example of that,” said Bob Crumrine, Deputy Interagency Fire Management Officer. “It’s better to share expertise and to go over as many of those different scenarios as you can outside the classroom like this in real environments.”

During the day-long exercise, firefighters conducted many of the most common, yet challenging, tasks they’d face while conducting their firefighting duties.

The training was broken down into five stations where firefighters had to conduct a medical evaluation and evacuation of an injured firefighter; conduct mobile attack operations and fight a simulated fire on the move from their engines; establish a landing site for helicopter external load operations; connect and troubleshoot portable water pumps; and one round-robin station where they had to do a weather analysis, conduct chainsaw operations, and firefighting engine operations.

“You train how you fight,” said Karl Krauter, Assistant Fire Management Officer with the Fremont-Winema National Forest’s Winter Rim Zone and the lead trainer for the day’s activities. “In these training scenarios, we’re building firefighters for the future, and that’s the most important thing for us.”

Community safety and that of our firefighters is the number one priority for all SCOFMP employees.

For more information, please contact Bariki Mallya at 541-947-6157. Or get our most recent updates online at scofmp.org/lifc.shtml, on Facebook at facebook.com/SCOFMPFireInfo and on Twitter at @SCOFMPFireInfo.

Press release provided by South Central Oregon Fire Management Partnership.

Klamath Falls News coverage of the 2018 Wildfire Season is brought to you by Excel Auto Body.

We at Excel Auto Body appreciate the brave men and women wildland firefighters that put themselves in harms way to protect our greatest treasures. Thank you for all that you.

Learn more about what Excel Auto Body can do for you at ExcelAutoBodyKF.com. "Your vehicle, our reputation."