Tips for Fighting Fires in the Wildland-Urban Interface with Tom Aurnhammer

On this show, we’re going to dive into some more detail for structural firefighters who find themselves working in the wildland-urban interface. If you’re going to be working these fires, there are new challenges to consider. The conditions are different, which means crews need different training, especially when they haven’t spent much time on wildland assignments.One big example: weather. It’s a factor that isn’t usually a consideration in structure fires, but it can mean everything in the wildland-urban interface. Here to explain what you need to think about –and why – is Tom Aurnhammer. Tom has over 40 years’ experience in the fire service. He’s chief of the Los Pinos Fire District in Ignacio, Colorado. He is a graduate of the National Fire Academy’s Executive Fire Officer Program. A fifth-generation firefighter, Tom holds a Chief Fire Officer designation and is a member of the Institution of Fire Engineers, U.S. Branch. You can hear him on the Back Step Boys podcast with Ron Kanterman.