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A look inside Minnesota’s largest wildfire training academy in Grand Rapids

Jun 09, 2022 08:49AM ● By Content Editor
Image: Ryan Arnst

By Quinn Gorham - KBJR 6 News - June 7, 2022

GRAND RAPIDS, MN -- Roughly 600 people, including students in training, incident management instructors, and Conservation Corps members, are spending this week preparing for a worst case scenario at the Minnesota Wildfire Academy in Grand Rapids.

Hosted at Minnesota North College’s Itasca Campus, the training aims to prepare people before the next big wildfire breaks out.

The academy is coordinated and organized by federal, state, and tribal Wildland fire management agencies, and several instructors have worked with Minnesota Incident command in the past.

It focuses on wildfire planning, operations, safety, and leadership.

Those involved get hand on as they practice using chainsaws, providing aerial support, and tactical planning.

Organizers say it’s important to prepare ahead of time for wildfires since they can be unpredictable and dangerous.

“The training we have is what’s basically helped us or saved us in a lot of those situations,” said Mike Aultman, an Incident Commander for the Minnesota Wildfire Academy.

The academy puts people in the field for simulated training with things like controlled burns, pumps, and navigation.

“They treat it like a wildfire emergency scenario. So they have a Basecamp manager, they have someone who’s on incident command, they have folks that are in charge of communications,” said Meadow Kouffeld, with the Natural Resources Department at Minnesota North College’s Itasca Campus.

Kouffeld helped organize the event.

She says the program has helped prepare professionals for large wildfires in the past well before those fires even ignite.

“Without these training opportunities, which become very difficult, especially when it comes to coordinating large events like this. Those people don’t get trained, and we don’t have people that can fill those critical positions on fires,” said Kouffeld.

The training also helps develop important relationships between first responders.

“You get the people to know each other, firefighters in one class will get to know each other. Then all of a sudden they meet up on an incident somewhere and they’ll know that person,” said Aultman.

The training will run through Friday.


To see the original report and read related stories, follow this link to the KBJR 6 News website.

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