Welcome to the Firefighter Type 2 Course April 6-7 2024

Good morning, 

We will be using this thread to discuss the upcoming Basic 32 (FFT2) Course in April.  We will use it to introduce ourselves to the both the instructors as well as other students.  This course will have several online self-paced courses and some pre-course work.  

Your first assignment is to reply to this topic with the following:

1. What is your name?
2. Where do you live?
3. Why you are taking this course?
4. Any past experience you may have in wildfire or prescribed fire
5. 1 fun fact about yourself

Please finish this assignment by Jan 15, 2024.

Thank you,
Richard Carvalho

My name is Diego Riojas and I live in Berkeley, CA.  I’m taking this course for more formal experience/training with wildfires and prescribed burning. I have participated in a broadcast burn and done prep work for prescribed burns like cutting line and chipping. A fun fact is that I was born in San Antonio, Texas.

My name is Carmen Searles and I live in Oakland. I am taking this course to learn more about prescribed fire and wildfire response. I don't have any first hand experience with wildfire or prescribed burning. A fun fact is that my favorite fruit is pineapple guava.

Hi! Here are the responses to the discussion prompt:

1. What is your name? I'm Beth Roybal
2. Where do you live? I live in the little town of Aromas, inland about 10 miles from the Monterey Bay.
3. Why you are taking this course? Our town has had two recent encounters with fires that could have been very damaging to our community. I'm hoping to broaden my own knowledge and skills to assist within the framework of our town's recently approved Rancho Aromitas Firewise Community (I'm a recently appointed board member) as well as with our regional Central Coast Prescribed Burn Association (I would like to become more involved in the work of the CCPBA). In addition, I'm very interested in helping to facilitate the mitigation of wildfire and the increase in dominance of native plants within our community's wildlands.
4. Any past experience you may have in wildfire or prescribed fire: As indicated above, our community has had two close encounters with fire over the past two years. If a few factors had played out differently, many homes and potentially lives could have been destroyed. In addition, I've followed the experiences of my son on the wildfire fighting line for the past three years (he captains a handline crew for a private contractor), and have heard numerous stories of how a few simply preparations and mitigation strategies such as prescribed burns could have made so many of these fires less destructive.
5. 1 fun fact about yourself: Fun fact? Um... I'm working on a couple of ideas for novels regarding wildland firefighting, one strand for young adults and one for adults.

I have a fledgling pineapple guava tree in my yard! No fruit yet, unfortunately.

1. Madeline/Maddie Thompson (they/she)
2. Truckee for the winter, Santa Cruz in the summer
3. I have been working with the Amah Mutsun Land Trust for a few years on a conservation and stewardship project, and I am hoping to participate in a burn they are doing next fall. (And more in the future! I've also just been interested in prescribed fire and indigenous land management for a long time.
4. Just one burn workshop with the CCPBA and Indian Canyon.
5. I love to draw landscapes (some pictures here if you'd like to see)