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Basic Wildland Fire Fighter Type 2 Training Course

40 Hour Online Training Course: Nov 28-Dec 1, 8:30am -5pm and Field-Based Training: Dec 2, 2022 

 

In this course, participants learned the basic principles of Wildland Fire Behavior and Wildland Fire Science. This training course meets the S-130, S-190, and L-180 requirements outlined by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG). Typically, people take this course because they are pursuing national or state certification for work with wildland fires. Successful completion of this course can satisfy prerequisites for more advanced courses and certification. 

S-130 Basic Wildland Firefighter Training (Class & Field Course) - This course was a hands on training providing entry level firefighting skills. Students were taken to the field for a day of instruction which included safety orientation, firefighter preparedness, tools, and equipment, firing devices, use of water, suppression, securing the control line, use of maps, hazardous materials, and operating safely. 
 
S-190 This is the first and foundational wildland fire behavior course in a five-course sequence in the NWCG curriculum. It introduced students to the basic concepts of wildland fire behavior, including: 
 
  • The primary wildland fire environment components: fuels, weather, and topography; 
  • How characteristics and interactions of fuels, weather, and topography affect fire behavior; 
  • How fire behavior affects risk to firefighters. 
L-180 Human Factors in the Wildland Fire Service, course exposed students to human performance concepts as part of basic wildland firefighter training. The course was specifically designed for entry-level operational personnel; however, this course also applies to all wildland fire service personnel, including non-operational personnel. At the end of the course, students practiced decision-making skills in an interactive simulation as a member of a fire crew, and students applied their Human Factors knowledge to a variety of scenarios. Throughout the simulation, students answered questions and made decisions regarding situation awareness and hazard identification, decision-making, and team cohesion. Responses were tracked, and then reported at the end of the activity. 
 
Participants completed the course with passing final test scores and received certification of S-190, L-180and S-130 from TorchBearr Fire School. This training met NWCG requirements and is accredited.
 
Registered participants and volunteers had the unique opportunity to put their training skills to work by putting live fire on the ground over the weekend immediately following the training, by joining and training with the California Indian Basketweavers' Association (CIBA) cultural fire demonstration in Dunlap, Ca. on Sunday, December 3rd. This was a wonderful opportunity to learn and collaborate with others, learning together the roll of fire and the need for our natural resources. CIBA aims rekindling culture and fire by engaging in conversations to help build partnerships in communities where cultural-burn projects occur, teaching how to maintain traditional ecological knowledge for maintenance of basket gathering areas. This important gathering will help local cultural burn practitioners become advocates for safe access of cultural resources for basketweavers. 
 

Online Course 11/28-12/1 and Field Training 12/2

Time Details
8am - 5:30 pm 11/28 - 12/1 online course with exercises
  12/2 Field-based training near Dunlap, California
   

Trainers

Scot Steinbring, Director of Operations Manager, TorchBearr Fire School

Scot Steinbring has spent over thirty years working in fire-related fields. His career has spanned both fire suppression and prescribed burning in that time completing many acres of thinning, project layout, planning and implementation . He started on a Forest Service fire engine at age 18 and from there pursued every training opportunity he could get, becoming qualified as a firefighter, squad boss, crew rep, engine boss, fire instructor, type 2 burn boss, and division group supervisor. He also opened a task book for packing fire resources into remote areas, and loves working with horses. Scot spent 25 years working at the Forest Service, and his time at that agency culminated in a job at Sequoia National Forest where he managed a program of 480 call-when-needed crew-members and took responsibility for their training, mobilization and safety. Scot then took his considerable fire experience and skills to Cal Fire, where he worked for three years as a prevention officer in the Tulare unit, learning valuable lessons in fire inspections and public outreach. Scot also serves as a qualified Division Group Supervisor and Operations Section Chief trainee on a California Type 2 Incident Management Team that responded nationally.  Subsequently, Scot went to work for two California Tribes as a Fire Management officer, Consulted for private fire contracting company, and currently a CWN Type 2 burn boss for the Nature Conservancy. He also recently co-founded the non-profit organization Torchbearr, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization focused on promoting prescribed fire for a brighter fire future for all. Torchbearr uses training, hands on burning, and education to accomplish this mission. Scot enjoys training future generations, and logs over 600 hours of training per year. Those hours include everything from basic 100 series fire classes to more advanced 300 series fire classes. Scot provides fire instruction and burn boss services to partner organizations including prescribed burn associations throughout California.  

His motto is “Learn from the past, Train the present or fail the future”  

Erica Terence, Founder and Director, TorchBearr Fire School

Eric grew up near the Oregon-California border in the rural Middle Klamath region, where fire is a fact of life and fire readiness is a year-round endeavor. Her background in journalism, watershed health, non-profit operations, and fire management inform everything she does. Erica has been performing various roles at non-profits from volunteer to leader for the past 17 years. She has been trained as a fundraiser for good causes and a public information officer serving communities and incident management teams during incidents like wildfires. Erica has worked in many aspects of fire, from promoting and practicing fire readiness and use of intentional fire as a method of fuels reduction to response during wildfires and helping communities to recover after devastating fire impacts. Most recently, Erica and her career fire fighter significant other Scot Steinbring have co-founded two separate but affiliated non-profit organizations focused on overcoming barriers to use of prescribed burning as a strategy to reduce wildfire risk. Travel, swimming, camping, food, gardening, homesteading, her dog, her friends, and her family keep her sane while fire keeps her motivated. 

Additional Instructors:

Francisco Castellanos, CRWB/Organized Crew Program-Sequoia National Forest

Arturo Zepeda, CRWB/Organized Crew Program-Sequoia National Forest

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