UWRF students complete wildland firefighter training

In 2012 there were over 67,000 wildland fires that burned over 9,000,000 acres nationwide. Wildland Firefighters are called to duty for every one of them. Each are properly trained for hours on every way to safely put the fire out. While the number of acres burned grows so will the number of firefighters.  The first two weekends of March, 17 students, a part of the Resource Management Club (RMC), travelled to UW-Stevens Point to get their Basic Wildland Firefighter 2 certifications.

Each student went through 40 hours of training, four exams and two days of outdoor field training including actually digging fire lines, locating hot spots and fighting fires around vehicles.

Each student passed and now has one more certification for a career in the field of conservation.  The Certified students now plan to start a Fire Crew within RMC to help the local DNR and other fire fighting agencies in their fight against wildland fire.