The Delaware Forest Service is hosting wildfire training in 2025.
The annual training prepares Delawareans to join the Delaware Wildland Fire crew and travel on fire assignments around the country.
To be part of the crew, participants must have to attend an initial, no-cost training.
"There are three prerequisite online courses that you take before the in-person courses. The in-person courses are held in four days over two weekends, and then an additional field day, which is the culmination of the training where we do some of the field exposure and also take the physical fitness test," said Sam Topper Wildland Fire Supervisor for the Delaware Department of Agriculture Forest Service.
The field day is in late March or early April at Blackbird State Forest in Smyrna.
The in-person classes are January 18 and 19 and February 1 and 2.
Topper says besides fighting forest fires, the program allows you to travel the country.
"It's one of the great things about participating in this work through our program, as opposed to say, actually living and doing it out west. Those folks are committed to their particular forest or region, and that's all they get to see,” said Topper. “Our folks travel all across the country and get to see so many different fuel types, forests, and states."
This year alone the Delaware Wildland Fire crew went to Oregon, Washington, and Colorado, and in 2023, the crew spent the entire summer fighting a fire at Yosemite National Park.
Registration is open until January 13.
