GIFF conducts annual training

With fire season around the corner, local fire agencies are making preparations. Members of the Gateway Interagency Fire Front met for their annual training.

It’s Cody Martin’s first year with the Fort Hall Fire Department. Despite being so new, he took the lead when his group was tasked with using wildland fire tactics to battle an oncoming fire.

He admits taking a leadership position can be “mind boggling.”

Martin was one of about 60 firefighters who participated in the interagency training involving seven local, federal and tribal agencies. The training helps the agencies familiarize and work with each other before a devastating fire breaks out.

“It’s all about teamwork, I mean as far as working with people and knowing how to do different tactics and things like that,” Martin said. “It makes it a lot easier to work together to accomplish the same goal.”

The training ran in four stations. Aside from wildland fire tactics, firefighters were tested in treating trauma and radio communications. They were also tested in structural triage, where they had to determine how to protect homes from an approaching wildfire.

Kevin Conran, who works in fire prevention and investigation with the Bureau of Land Management, organized the training. He made it as hands-on as possible.

“There’s only so much that you can learn in a classroom setting,” Conran said. “If you want to go out and assess a structure for risk, the best way to do that is to come out and look at the structure.”

Martin is thankful for the practice, but he knows GIFF’s skills will be tested when a fire sparks.

“Practice will make things go a little smoother, but you can never fully prepare for an incident because one incident is never the same,” Martin said.

As groups rotated through the stations, the fire chiefs met for a sand table exercise, during which they were tasked with fighting a fire that crossed jurisdictional boundaries.

GIFF was formed in 1987 after the Johnny Creek Fire.