Fire Department Wildland Training for Cooperative Areas

The DNR's Division of Forestry has instructors available to teach wildland fire training to fire departments in cooperative fire protection areas of Wisconsin.

If your fire department is interested in this free wildland fire training, please contact Ron Schneider, cooperative fire specialist, at 608-438-6528 to schedule this valuable training.

Introduction to wildland fire suppression for Wisconsin fire departments

This eight-hour training class is designed to give Wisconsin firefighters a background in wildland fire suppression and improve the efficiency and safety of fire department personnel operating on wildland fires.

• Unit 1 – Introduction
  Describes the background and rationale for this training for fire departments.
• Unit 2 – Wisconsin Forest Fire Laws 
  Describes and explains the Wisconsin state statutes that apply to wildland fires.
• Unit 3 – Fire Behavior
  Describes how and why wildland fires burn given weather and fuel conditions.
• Unit 4 – Wildland Fire Size Up
  Describes the initial size up procedure and radio communications.
• Unit 5 – Wildland Fire Suppression Tactics
  Describe suppression tactics and techniques used in Wisconsin.
• Unit 6 – Mop Up
  Describes tactics and techniques to secure a wildland fire from escaping after control.
• Unit 7 – Incident Command System
  Describes an overview of the Incident Command System used by Wisconsin fire departments.
• Unit 8 – Wildland Fire Safety
  Describes safe operating guidelines on wildland fires and includes a case study of a Wisconsin firefighter fatality.

Structural protection for Wisconsin fire departments

This three-hour training class is designed to give Wisconsin firefighters a background in structural protection during wildland fire suppression and to improve the efficiency and safety of fire department personnel operating on wildland urban interface (WUI) fires.

View the structural protection training video (2:51 hours). 

• Unit 1 – Interface Awareness
  Describes the definition, background and rationale for structural protection training for fire departments.
• Unit 2 – Size Up
  Describes the Firewise considerations, pre-incident and initial size up procedures and radio communications during a WUI fire.
• Unit 3 – Triage
  Describes how and why of structural protection priorities. Explains the sorting of structures for protection strategies during WUI fires.
• Unit 4 – Tactics
  Describes multiple structural protection tactics and techniques used in Wisconsin.
• Unit 5 – WUI Fire Safety
  Describes safe operating guidelines and watch out situations on WUI fires during structural protection operations.
• Unit 6 – Lessons Learned
  Describes a case study (the Cottonville fire in 2005) and how to conduct a Wisconsin WUI fire structural protection operation.