March 29, 2024

NSNWR specialist helps fight western fires

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On a summer day, Prairie City’s Richard Hager received a notice requesting his assistance in the fight against the western fires. The following morning he was in a fire engine on his way to Avery, Idaho.

After two full days of driving with people from Port Louisa National Wildlife Refuge in Wapello, Hager was on scene in Avery to carry on a mission aimed to contain the fires.

Wildfires are a common occurrence every summer, but when one continues to grow and strengthen, relief is typically needed from outside resources. That was the case for this year’s wildfires in the United States.

There are thousands of people paid to be wildfire fighters, Hager said, but the standard policy is that individuals can only work for two consecutive weeks until they are required to take some time off — even if it’s just a few days.

“After they do several rotations of that, you have people who are tired or you have people going back to school. There are a zillion reasons. So those resources get short,” Hager said. “Then they put a call out to all of the people who are qualified.”

Hager, who works as a specialist at Prairie City’s Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge, is qualified in handling wildfires as the refuge practices controlled burns each summer.

He received a service order requesting his help and quickly became a part of a very structured incident command system for fighting fires. Almost military-like, he said.

There were four objectives for the teams in Avery. One of which was to protect the town from the progression of the fire, but protecting valuable resources including a private timber ground was a large part of the mission as well.

“Those timber resources had already been harvested,” Hager said. “Several millions of dollars of logs were waiting to be hauled out but were stopped because of the wildfire.”

They also had objectives to protect the St. Joe River from the blaze and a power line supplying energy to neighboring states.

Hager spent two weeks in Avery, working 15-hour days in rigorous terrain. However, firefighters had some down time as well and even received gifts from the locals.

“People from town showed up with whatever they had that they thought we would like to have. From handy wipes to chewing gum. Whatever it was, they brought it and donated it to the cause,” Hager said. “You don’t know them and they don’t know you, but they need help. That’s really cool.”

Hager ended his temporary duties in early September after two weeks of work. A few days later he found himself back in Prairie City and has continued his work at NSNWR.

The refuge does a controlled burn of about 30 percent of its land each year to control incoming weeds and allow native grass to reestablish itself. Many qualified individuals at NSNWR who participate in the annual controlled burns also receive service orders to help in wildfires across the country.

“In order to burn at the refuge we take the same series of classes and it takes three to four weeks to do all the classes,” Hager said. “Then every year you have to do a refresher and a physical test, which is walking three miles in 45 minutes carrying a 45-pound pack.”

The refuge has a goal to restore and reconstruct its land to look like pre-European Iowa with native wildlife, and fire is such a big part of that mission. The yearly training to participate in the controlled burns is a lot of hard work, but Hager said it helps him stay young.

Contact Alex Olp at
aolp@myprairiecitynews.com