Alaska’s First Ever Field Delivered Fire Leadership Class Complete
Incident: Minto Flats South Wildfire
Released: 7/11/2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact: Gary Lehnhausen
(907) 832-1836
July 12, 2009 Division of Forestry
Alaska's First Ever Field Delivered Fire Leadership Class Complete
Congratulations to the graduates of the Alaska's first ever Field Delivered S-420 Incident Management training class, and a special thanks to the Pacific Northwest Cadre and the Alaska Type 2-Green Incident Management Team(IMT).
At the Minto Flats South fire in Nenana the first 8 students of the class emerged with flying colors. The Pacific Northwest Cadre delivered the class with the assistance and cooperation of the Alaska Type 2-Green IMT. "This is something the trainers have been working on for a long time, and I'm really excited to see it come to fruition here in Alaska." said Tony Doty of the Instruction Cadre.
The students selected are intended to supplement the Alaska IMT system, and included 8 Type 2 Students: 2 Safety Officer Trainees, 2 Operations Trainees, and 4 Information Officer Trainees.
The class also occurred concurrently with an ongoing incident and the students were part of the firefighting efforts. "The field delivered setting offers advantages over the classroom version for several reasons," said Kent Slaughter, Safety Trainee student. "The on the ground situations certainly provide a challenge that simulations can't capture."
The Cadre acknowledged that support of the team was essential to providing this training opportunity. "Safety is of course our first priority, and we were pleased that both the incident and the class were able to benefit from the coordinated effort on this assignment." said Rob Allen, Incident Commander of the Green Team and the Minto Flats South Fire near Nenana. There is definitely a visible benefit to both the existing Team and the students, who we'd like to bring on in the future, from this method of delivery."
