Eleven Complete Basic Wildland Firefighter Training

The Shawnee National Forest sponsored training at the Golconda Job Corps Center.

The Shawnee National Forest sponsored a week of basic firefighter training held at the Golconda Job Corps Center from April 6 through April 10, 2009. The training was designed to provide the basic skills an individual needs to be able to safely fight forest wildland fires or assist in prescribed burns.

Shawnee National Forest Fire Management Officer Chris Peterson said, "The ultimate goal of this week's training was to prepare the participants and make them available to be dispatched to wildland fires anywhere in the United States, particularly out west. Each one of these young men has learned the safety skills, been taught the use of firefighting tools and now are familiar with the unpredictability of wildland fire."

Those who attended this basic firefighter training included nine Job Corps students, one Williamson County, Illinois firefighter and one Forest employee. The instructors were Shawnee National Forest wildland firefighters Chris Peterson, Frank Paukert, Dan Taylor and Johnny Walker.

Training students and employees to be wildland firefighters is one way the Forest is revolutionizing effectiveness and efficiency.