Firefighters prepare as weather heats up

COEUR d’ALENE — The North Idaho Wildfire Training Zone hosted a weeklong wildlands fire training course at Camp Lutherhaven this week. More than 300 firefighters attended the annual Guard School event.

“This is definitely a record year for us,” said Shoshana Cooper, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service.

The Forest Service teamed up with the Idaho Department of Lands, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe and the Nez Perce Tribe to train new and seasoned firefighters in a number of firefighting techniques designed to keep them safe in a forest fire situation.

Jeremiah Miller, who led one of eight teams that rotated from station to station around the fire camp, summarized it in a debriefing during a simulated evacuation of a fire line they were digging.

His primary message was to stay alert for dangerous situations and to speak up when something just doesn’t feel right.

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