Media participants practice deploying their fire shelters at the 2012 DNR Media Wildfire Orientation.
Photo by: Jessica Payne/DNR
June is National Safety Month, which means DNR getting down to business with their safety trainings. This morning, DNR Fire Training Program Manager Joel Rogauskas met with members of the media to conduct their annual New Generation Fire Shelter Training. This training certifies that reporters have basic safety knowledge to be escorted on the fire line safely. They are required to learn the proper use of the emergency fire shelter, which is used as a last resort for safety.
Completing the New Generation Fire Shelter Training allows members of the media to be escorted onto the wildfire site. By: Jessica Payne/DNR
Although Washington State has had below average fire seasons in the each of the past three years, we are on track to be back up to average this summer. Since this January, DNR has already suppressed 116 wildfires that have burned nearly 856 acres on DNR-protected lands.
Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark stated yesterday, “As we head into fire season, our number one goal is safety first.”
The Media Wildfire Safety Training helps ensure that reporters can keep themselves safe and prevent endangering firefighters on the scene of the fires. For their test, they must be able to deploy their fire shelter and be completely enclosed in it in less than 25 seconds. This shelter can help protect the person inside from the raging flames and hot winds as the wildfire passes over them. Most reporters and firefighters will never have to use their shelters, but in the scary scenario that they do, this training can help save their lives.
Join DNR as we practice safety for National Safety Month. You can find out how to protect your home and family from fire danger at Firewise.org . Keep in touch with this year’s wildfire season on the DNR_Fire Twitter feed.
For more photos of the Media Wildfire Safety Orientation visit our Flickr page.
| Follow DNR on: |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Tags: DNR, Fire safety, Wildfire
