Tuesday, February 11th Indianhead Academy students got some basic Wildland Fire education with Wildland Fire Instructor Max Maeda from Treasure Valley Community College. Students at the Academy were given the opportunity to take the entry level Wildland Fire course through TVCC. “Anyone wanting to get into fire will take this class. This class through TVCC consists of three Wildland Fire courses into one. Human Factors and Wildland Fire Service, Intro into Wildland Fire Behavior and Firefighter Training,” stated Maeda. When finished with the course students will have completed enough training to be considered a Type 2 Firefighter and can seek job opportunities fighting fires through private or federal agencies.
Maeda shared that once students complete this course and gain some experience fighting fires they can add to their education on Wildland Firefighting in many different avenues such as, chainsaw operator, medical, aviation, drones or even catering. There are many different parts to fighting fire from the fighting to housing and caring for the firefighters while at an active fire. Maeda shared that many start their careers right where these students are with the basic Wildland Fire class.
Maeda began his career in firefighting due to family influence and has now worked fire for the last 11-12 seasons and shared that he really loves it. “You get to see a bunch of different parts of the country and meet a lot of people from different areas of the country too. There are a lot of different cool jobs that pay well. Even if they (students) decide they don’t want to make it into a career, they can do this for a summer job and make a lot of money that they can use to pay for their schooling for a different career they want to do. I know a lot of people who have done that,”stated Maeda.