Wildland firefighting season is getting into full swing and this year the Siuslaw National Forest has partnered with Angell Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center to train the next generation of firefighters. Starting August 1, Angell’s student firefighters will participate in S-212 – Wildland Fire Chainsaw, a class that will provide instruction on the safe use of chainsaws and their tactical wildland fire application. Chainsaw training follows the required initial training, Firefighter Type 2, which the students recently completed.
At the completion of their training, 11 Angell Job Corps students will be certified to assist federal, state and local firefighters in Oregon and Washington to provide initial attack, fire line construction and mop-up duties on wildfires. National forests and cooperators rely on the support from partners, like Job Corps, to manage incidents that would be difficult for a single national forest to support on its own.
Forest Service employees are providing training in wildland firefighting to Angell students, who are very excited to learn this new skill. “This is an excellent opportunity for our students to receive first-rate training as well as gain experience working with fire,” said Jothan McGaughey, Angell Job Corps Assistant Fire Management Officer. “Working hand in hand with instructors, they quickly learn how to apply their new skills while gaining valuable insights into wildland firefighting techniques.”
“This is a great partnership and it gives Job Corps students another career path to pursue,” said Dan Eddy, Fire Management Officer for Siuslaw National Forest. “Some of Angell’s students have an interest in fire management and may want to pursue this career path because of the job experience we provide.”The students training at Job Corps Centers across the nation have diverse interests, but many are dedicated to some of the most vital work of the Forest Service — wildland firefighting.
Job Corps is a no-cost education and career technical training program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor that helps young people ages 16 through 24 improve the quality of their lives through career technical and academic training. The Job Corps program is authorized by Title I-C of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act
of 2014 (supersedes WIA 1998). Angell Job Corps Center, located on the Oregon Coast in Yachats, is overseen by the San Francisco Regional Office of Job Corps and is operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture – Forest Service.
