Funding cuts put wildfire training on back burner

Instructor Ken Vomund, assistant fire chief of O'Fallon, assists a participant in rapelling down the side of the municipal parking garage Thursday during the University of Missouri Summer Fire School.
Instructor Ken Vomund, assistant fire chief of O'Fallon, assists a participant in rapelling down the side of the municipal parking garage Thursday during the University of Missouri Summer Fire School.

There won't be as many students taking part in this year's annual University of Missouri Summer Fire School, which runs through the weekend in Jefferson City.

That's because, for the first time since 2002, the Midwest Wildfire Training Academy will not take place.

The Big Rivers Forest Fire Management Compact, including Missouri, Indiana, Iowa and Illinois, is supported by the U.S. Forest Service Northeast Region, which had joined MU to establish the wildfire academy offering nationally certified wildfire management courses.

"Big Rivers lost their federal funding, so they can't offer the academy," MU spokesman Tracy Gray said. "We're still doing some wildfire training, but only three classes. They hope to get their funding back, but they're not sure how soon that will be."

Missouri averages more than 3,700 wildfires each year, scorching 55,000 acres of forest and grassland, Gray said, so continuing some form of wildfire training is important.

Students from Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas and Florida will attend this year's fire school.

The economic impact of the fire school on the Jefferson City economy has been projected to be more than $400,000 in recent years. But Gray said it might not be as high this year without the wildfire academy.

"With the academy, we would normally have around 600 participants," Gray said.

More than 400 participants, including students, faculty and staff, are expected at this year's fire school. Faculty members are considered experts in their fields and come from across Missouri, as well as other parts of the country.

Among the classes offered this year are boat rescue, structural collapse rescue and fire truck driving. The training will take place at Lincoln University, the Jefferson City Fire Department's Hyde Park Training Facility and the Noren Missouri River Access.

The purpose of the first summer fire school, conducted on the MU campus in Columbia in 1933, was to teach modern methods of firefighting.

This year's fire school offers 12 courses ranging from 12-40 course hours. Many of the classes offer continuing education units for professional certifications: fire inspectors, instructors and investigators; certified foresters; law enforcement officers; and EMTs and paramedics. Several courses are approved for college-level credit. Wildfire courses train students to manage local wildfire suppression and meet national qualifications to support mobilization needs throughout the nation.

Missouri has more than 900 fire departments and 24,000 firefighters. Departments can be categorized as municipal, fire districts or fire associations. Missouri mirrors the national average with roughly 70 percent of firefighters being volunteers and the remaining 30 percent being career.

Nearly 40 percent of fire school participants represent career departments, and the remaining 60 percent represent volunteer departments.