Training - June 1st & 6th, 2004

June 1, 2004

Los Angeles County Fire Department
Camp 2 Training Facility

Normally, we hold our Fire Lookout Training classes at the Supervisor's office in Arcadia.  During the weekends when we conduct our training, it is hard for the general public to enter the SO facility due to the locked gate.

LACoFD Camp 2 is easy to get to and accessable.  The facility also has food services so the students can eat on the campus.
Chief Pena and Chief Jones welcomed the Volunteer Fire Lookouts to their facility so we could conduct our training.

Camp 2 is home to LACoFD Crew 2 that is a helicopter or truck deployable hand crew.  The facility has barracks, a cafeteria and a two nice training rooms.
One of two "buggies" that are used to carry the fire crews to the fires when they are not using the helicopter.
We setup our display off all the historic towers that used to be in the Angeles National Forest outside of the classroom.
Pam welcomes everyone and announces the agenda.
Bob begins talking about the program and what is expected of each volunteer in performing this duty.
Bob talks about Vetter Mountain, because he is the team lead for that lookout.

June 5, 2004

Pam gets the training day going but first I have an award for Bob & Maria from the Department of the Interior in thanks for their service as volunteers in the Fire Lookout Program.
During a break Pam points to the logo of Camp 2.  Pam loves helicopters and she is hoping that the one stationed at camp 2 will fly in.
Lunch time comes and Bob gets a roll from the serving tray.
Camp 2 has a nice lunch room that is staffed by members of the fire crew.
My plate of food.  You bet no one went hungry.  One thing is for sure, those Fire boys know how to keep the energy levels up.

Just as we finished lunch, we heard the sound of helicopter #18 coming in to the Camp.
Pam, and a few of us went outside to watch #18 land.  The helicopter crew just finished a mission in the Angeles Forest by rescuing a vehicle accident victim to the Huntington Memorial Hospital.  They were taking on fuel because they had a call for another accident.
The crew member saw the excitement on Pam's face and he invited her to come down closer to the Helicopter.  You didn't have to ask Pam twice.

We fully expected her to get in the chopper and not see her for the rest of the day.  After topping off the tanks, Air #18 lifted off and headed into the mountains.

It took about 45 minutes before Pam calmed down.
Back in class, we showed a video to the students how the shutters of the tower work, and also showed various ways to lift them into position.
As a fire lookout, our secondary job is dealing with the public, and since there are typically no fires, the secondary job becomes the primary job of talking to the public and answering their questions.

Therefore, as a Fire Lookout it is important to know the basics about the Forest and the Mountains.

Plants, Animals, and Geology is all part of the training program.

Here, Deb gives instruction regarding earthquakes and plate tectonics by using sponges as a demonstration.
Deb also brought in several displays.  Here is a display of a male and female California Quail, our State Bird.
A scrub (blue) Jay with a nest of eggs is preserved well in this display.
Deb also did a complete lesson on the various types of pinecones that can be found in our mountains.
She said she would attend and I was so happy that my girlfriend Susan decided to take the training and be qualified as a Fire Lookout.  Here she had to check out Deb's Bobcat display.
A while later Susan and I posed for a picture with one of the LACoFD Crew Buggy #2-2.

June 12, 2004

The third and last day of training deals with operations and a lesson about Wildfires.  This was is my area of expertise and I taught a lesson regarding how fire acts in the wilderness, and what causes it to behave the way it does.
As it turns out, one of our students is employed as a Los Angeles County Fire Fighter, and to supplement my lesson plan regarding fire equipment, I asked him to show the students some of the equipment.
Using the "working stiff" model outside, he showed all of the various tools and clothing items that fire fighters wear.
A heavy duty combination rake and hoe, known as a McLeod, was named after its inventor Ranger Malcolm McLeod.  Firefighters use this tool to cut through matted litter and duff and clearing loose surface materials during a wildfire.

It is a very effective tool.
Outside, all Fire Lookouts are trained in the use of the Belt Weather Kit.  Fire conditions and weather changes all the time, and it is important for firefighters and lookouts to check the conditions at anytime.

Although we no longer report the weather to dispatch, we still keep the weather logs as part of the historic duty that lookouts perform, and also as a backup to the computer weather collection systems if needed.
George demonstrates the use of the Osborne Fire Finder.

CLASS OF 2004

After three days of training, the students finish the classroom instruction portion of their training.  They are graduates, but they are not qualifed Fire Lookouts yet.  They must continue their training with a Tower Instructor at each of the towers they want to be qualified to operate.

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