Northeast Regional Office Joining Forces to Train New Information Officers
Training gives people from different agencies the opportunity to work and learn together. This can pay off later when there is a fire or other incident. In March, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Bureau of Forestry (BOF) coordinated the 32-hour course, Introduction to Incident Information, S-203. Participants were from the BOF, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and the National Park Service. Instructors came from the ranks of current and former BOF employees, the Bureau of Land Management and the NPS Northeast Regional Office.
A highlight of the course was the three-hour live action scenario. Students put all their training to work responding to the demands often made in the opening stages of a large wildfire. Role players from a BOF crew boss course did a fine job in making the exercise as real as possible.
Participants also had the chance to hear directly from employees of a newspaper and a television station on good ways to work together to get stories to the public. A reporter from The Altoona Mirror and the assignment editor from Altoona’s WTAJ-TV took the time answer questions and to share their insights with the class.
Contact: Barb Stewart, Fire Education, Prevention and Information Specialist, Northeast Region Phone: (434) 977-1375 x3365
A highlight of the course was the three-hour live action scenario. Students put all their training to work responding to the demands often made in the opening stages of a large wildfire. Role players from a BOF crew boss course did a fine job in making the exercise as real as possible.
