Arizona hot-shot firefighters train ahead of peak wildfire season

MARICOPA COUNTY, Ariz. - More than a hundred hot-shot firefighters from 20 different departments in Arizona are going through their own version of spring training – a mandatory course to make sure they’re ready to take on the next wildfire – during a two-day training at Lake Pleasant.

Any firefighter will tell you, there’s no such thing as wildfire season in Arizona anymore, but that fire risk is 365 days a year.

Spring is the start of the peak season, and each year is made more tricky by the lingering drought and the constant flow of people migrating to the southwest.

In drills, firefighters are running for their lives and diving for cover in a fire shelter suit. It's a refresher course in wildland firefighting and survival, even for an 18-year veteran like Peoria Fire & Medical Department Captain, Doug Corrie.

"You talk about all the stuff you learn here. It then cultivates questions and just kind of gets us ready to go for the upcoming season," he said.

This is annual training for hot-shot crews across the Valley. The teams are tested at four stations, deploying the shelter suits, sand-table training, like a war room for firefighters and a communication station.

"In order to work on the fireline, wildland firefighters must take annual refresher courses and perform work capacity tests, which determine if a person can meet the minimum standards of arduous work," a news release read.

Crews also practice operating a pumper truck to get water where there's usually none.

"We make sure we talk about communication. Make sure we know how to do a hose lay to put out a fire. How to engage in complex fires," says Dean Fernandez, safety officer with the Bureau of Land Management in Arizona.

Wildfires are a constant threat, especially in Arizona. The desert is full of remote landscapes that lack water, where a flicker can turn into a full-blown fire – fast.

"Now it seems like every fire we’ve gone through in the last decade or half a decade has been even worse than what they were before," said Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management Captain Brian Perrone.

In this business, you’re never too prepared for the day a drill becomes the real deal.

"If we have a lot of rain that means more grass. So, we will have a more active fire season. If it’s dry, then it’s going to be an active fire season. So it’s a catch-22," Corrie said.

Crews want to send a reminder for the public: Do its part. More than 70% of wildfires are human-caused.

As of March 30, the Presumido Peak Fire is burning in Pima County near the Mexico border. Fire crews say the fire is human-caused and has burned more than 4,000 acres.