Thanks to requests by state leaders for federal funds allocated by members of Congress to provide training in advance of wildfire season, more than 300 members of the Oregon National Guard were trained in July by the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training (DPSST) as wildland firefighters. This training was pro-actively offered by DPSST at the request of Governor Brown and the Oregon National Guard so that our State’s citizen-soldiers and citizen-airmen could be activated and deployed much faster should the need arise for their assistance. The current wildfires around the state show the importance of this pro-active training as three teams of Oregon National Guard members have been deployed to date. DPSST has provided refresher training on the use of emergency fire shelters to those being deployed (photos attached). The training offered at the Oregon Public Safety Academy in Salem earlier this year is often known as “red card” training and consists of both classroom and hands-on sessions. The training provided is the same training required of all public and private wildland firefighters. The Oregon National Guard has a proven track record of supporting wildfire suppression efforts, from the air and on the ground, around the state in recent years. In 2015, members of the Guard assisted with wildfire suppression efforts in John Day and Enterprise. In 2017, more than 400 citizen-soldiers and citizen-airmen supported Oregon’s firefighting efforts (air and ground) at High Cascades Complex (near Crater Lake), Chetco Bar, Blanket Creek, Horse Prairie, and Milli fires. As part of the State’s coordinated and comprehensive wildfire suppression efforts, the Guard has a long-standing agreement with the Oregon Department of Forestry known as Operation Plan Smokey, which stipulates the details of how Guard members will be utilized to assist in annual firefighting efforts if needed. This agreement is reviewed on an annual basis by both agencies and the Governor’s Office. DPSST is preparing to train more than 200 additional members of the Oregon National Guard later this week in case their assistance will also be needed. This training will take a week and will be held at Camp Rilea in Warrenton due to air quality conditions at the Oregon Public Safety Academy in Salem. Due to staffing needs created by wildfires around the state, DPSST is recieving assistance from instructors from the University of Illinois Fire Service Institute and the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management. DPSST Director Eriks Gabliks said “DPSST is honored to help support this important mission that has a proven record of success in training over 1,000 members of the Guard for wildland firefighting duties over the past five years. We value and appreciate the partnership we enjoy with the Oregon National Guard and the deployment of three teams of citizen-soldiers and citizen-soldiers on short notice shows the importance of the federal funds made available by Congress for the training our agency was able to provide.”
