SPS students join wildland fire training at LCC

More than 125 high school students from nine districts joined the 2025 Wildland Fire Training and open house at Lane Community College (LCC), including a dozen Thurston High School students. Participants were introduced to various activities related to fire management, including how to dig a fire line using real trade tools, unfolding fire hoses, putting out fires, and learning how to deploy a personal shelter.

“The program is about exposing students to wildland firefighting,” says Stacy Tuers, teacher on special assignment overseeing the career and technical education programs at Springfield Public Schools. “This industry needs more boots on the ground due to climate change and limited resources. Fires affect our everyday lives—they have an impact on air quality and destroy our natural resources.”

Students also had the opportunity to interact and ask questions from actual fire crews from the Oregon Department of Forestry and Dust Busters Plus, a wildland firefighting company based in Eugene and Medford. Students also met and got the opportunity to talk to professionals in fire management that maintain and protect private forests for Sierra Pacific.

Alejandro Torres, a junior at THS, is considering becoming a wildland firefighter in great part because his father used to be one. Torres visited all the training stations and even had the opportunity to dig a fire line using a Pulaski, a specialty hand tool used in fighting fires, particularly wildfires, which combines an axe and an adze in one head.

Visit the Lane Community College website to learn more about the Wildland Fire Management Certificate.
 

Pictured above are THS students Alejandro Torres and Juan Carlos Tobon practicing radio communication during a fire management scenario. The drill required the students to relay accurate details in a concise manner over the radio.