FIREFIGHTERS from the United States are going to be giving world-class wildfire training in Hampshire.
Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service is in talks with agencies such as the State Department for Forestry and the Bureau of Land Management as well as fire departments in central Oregon about upskilling crews.
It’s part of an ongoing relationship between Hampshire and Oregon fire services which involves skill-sharing and gives the county’s firefighters the chance to learn new tactics and strategies.
Dave Hodge is the services lead on wildfires and recently became a national wildfire tactical advisor. He has been co-ordinating the Oregon visits.
He said: “We aim to be the best. You can’t do that by staying within your borders. You have to find out where the experts in each field are and see how they do things.
“Their approach to wildfires is that you can’t prevent all of them so you have to prepare for them – the focus is on resilience.
“The value of this hands-on experience and the new skills you learn cannot be replicated by reading a manual.”
Crews from Oregon have also visited the county twice to look at the world-class training facilities at The?Academy.