by 
San Manuel Miner
On Saturday, March 21, 2015 the Oracle Fire Department will be hosting the fourth annual Pinal County Wildland Team training. This is the third year in a row they have hosted. The first team training was held at Pinal Air Park in Marana. The Pinal County Wildland Team is a consortium of nine fire agencies located in Southern Pinal County and Northern Pima County that participate in nationwide and state wildland fires and all hazard incidents. The agencies are: Oracle Fire Department, Avra Valley Fire District, Casa Grande Fire Department, Eloy Fire District, Golder Ranch Fire District, Maricopa Fire District, Northwest Fire District, Picture Rocks Fire Department, and Regional Fire and Rescue.
Agencies from Pima, Cochise, Maricopa and Santa Cruz counties are expected to attend as well as Arizona State Forestry, Arizona Department of Corrections Wildland Fire Crew and the USDA Forest Service Coronado National Forest. The all day event will be held at Mountain Vista School. All the training will be in the one location rather than spread out over Oracle as it has been in the past.
The purpose of the training is to refine wildland fire fighting skills. The simulated incident is set up like a real life large emergency. The agencies participating get to familiarize themselves with each other as well as the Oracle area. Oracle Fire Chief Larry Southard said, “We look forward to the event every year. A lot of collaboration goes on between agencies and it also meets some of the mandatory refresher training requirements for our firefighters. The Oracle CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) group will play a major role in staffing rehab station areas for firefighters to rest, cool down and rehydrate. It will help our CERTS to experience a real emergency event.”
John Hernandez lives in Oracle. He is retired and enjoys writing and traveling. He is active in the Oracle Historical Society. He covers numerous public events, researches historical features and writes business/artist profiles.
by by