In the middle of a warm summer night, Steven Elsbury stood guard over flames that danced among the trees as a wildland fire scorched more than 300 acres of land in north-central Idaho.
Elsbury, a University of Idaho student and former firefighter with Clearwater Potlatch Timber Protective Association, arrived about 60 miles outside Orofino, Idaho to fight the Steep Corner Fire in August 2012. The fire began after a small logging accident, and turned into a fatal forest fire.
“Being there at night the whole time was a different experience,” Elsbury said. “When it gets really hot, fires kind of start to create their own weather. So you’ll get fire tornados for instance, which are exactly what they sound like — whirlwinds of flames.”
He spent about a week working the night crew on the Steep Corner Fire before returning to “fire camp,” where he lived during the summer, hiking, training and responding to smaller fires started by lightning strikes.
Elsbury, a senior in mechanical engineering, isn’t the only UIstudent who has spent time fighting wild fires. In fact, fire fighting is a common summer job for UI students — especially those studying fire ecology and management.
The UI Department of Forest, Rangeland and Fire Sciences is home to the only Bachelor of Science program focused on wildland fires in the U.S.
UI professor Penny Morgan, who specializes in fire ecology, said the study of fire is a rich area of research, because of its history and impact on the environment’s ecosystems.
“It’s such an interesting challenge,” Morgan said. “How do you balance this need as a society to want to protect people and their houses from fire, and at the same time know that we live in a fire environment and fires are going to happen? These are the kind of topics we talk about with students in our program.”
The National Association for Fire Ecology recently recognized UI’s program as an exemplary effort in fire education, Morgan said.
“They highlighted our program as a model for the kinds of programs we need elsewhere,” Morgan said. “I think it’s because we have a lot of fires in Idaho and in the West that the faculty started studying fires, and then they found out students were interested too.”
One of the required courses for fire ecology and management students is a prescribed burning lab, in which students plan, execute and study a controlled fire. This year, a group of students went to Nebraska during spring break and worked with The Nature Conservancy to set and manage a series of fires.
Fire ecology and management sophomore Kristopher Cunio participated in the controlled burn, and said the group successfully burnt about 2,100 acres of prairie land in one day.
They used a technique called black-lining to control the fire’s size. Cunio explained that burning 10- to 15-foot strips along the perimeter of the area contained the blaze within a boundary of usable fuel. When flames reached the already-blackened patch, they died out for lack of flammable materials.
Cunio came to UI for the country’s only four-year fire ecology and management program. He has fought fires for two seasons in Canyon City, Colo., and will return there for summer 2014. He said fire has always been interesting to him because his father fought fires.
“It was awesome,” Cunio said. “Every summer my dad would come clumping through with his big boots and I’d go, ‘Well yeah, my dad is about to go beat up a fire.’ I guess that’s what got me thinking seriously about firefighting as a career.”
Cunio said his goal is to join a “hotshot” crew, a group of advanced firefighters that takes over when fires become especially dangerous. He said the ability to take control of a fire is essential in insuring the safety of everyone involved.
Back in the 2012 Steep Corner Fire, Elsbury recalls the conditions becoming very unstable after day two — so much so that 20-year-old firefighter and Moscow native Anne Veseth died after a tree fell on her.
“After somebody dies on a fire, there’s a lot of things that change in a hurry,” Elsbury said. “For one, safety is paramount with fire to begin with, but everything ramps up a lot after an accident happens on a fire. Everyone becomes more aware of the chain of command, protocols and duties assigned to them. The dangerousness of the situation becomes surreal.”
Morgan said fire students often focus on fatalities in wildland fires so they can learn how to prevent them. Morgan recognizes the dangers of fire, but said she doesn’t see fires as all bad.
“One of the paradoxes in the fire world is that if you keep suppressing fires, the fuels accumulate,” Morgan said. “And the next fire would be a lot worse. So, when we have fires they are consuming fuels and that sometimes has benefits.”
UI’s fire ecology and management program continues to produce successful firefighters through its rigorous classroom instruction, which includes case studies and hands-on courses that introduce students to the realities of fire.
“It definitely tells you something when I can bring my personal experiences to the classroom and learn more about them,” Cunion said. “So far in the program, I’ve found that it’s the best training for fire professionals, and that just tells you they’re doing something right.”
Written by Amber Emery