Long time lurker on hacker news. This topic inspired me to finally register. Wildland operations are a completely different skill set from structural firefigh

Long time lurker on hacker news. This topic inspired me to finally register. Wildland operations are a completely different skill set from structural firefighting. That is why there is a separate certification (red card). While I never was red card certified, our small town department in Colorado was asked during the occasional summer to provide structural support (or wildland if certified) for some of the mountain towns (lodgepole pine beetle kill). This freed up the wildland folks to do their thing. We got enough training to learn that basically the only tool that should be carried when speed is of the essence is your portable shelter. Granted it looks like out training came a decade after the above fire, so lessons learned are being disseminated. Sad to hear about the 27 brother and sisters who lost their lives on the line. Regarding admired fire departments, Phoenix fire seemed to show up a lot in our trainings as a source that really focused on data driven strategy and tactics. (10 year retired volunteer Firefighter)