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Practice makes perfect

Mustached man in green uniform, wearing a hard hat and glasses squints at the camera.

Text credit:
[1] Paraphrased from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulaski_(tool)

The Pulaski is a special hand tool used in wildland firefighting. It is a combination of an axe and an adze in one head. The Pulaski is a versatile tool for constructing fireguards because it can be used to both dig soil and chop wood.

Feature photo:
Major David Anderson intense on his firefighting training.

Photo credit:
James Murray, Salmon Arm Observer, c. 1998

When the S-100 Basic Fire Suppression and Safety Training class was completed, soldiers were taken to a farmer’s field and given shovels and Pulaskis.[1]

18 soldiers in green uniforms wearing hard hats and gloves carrying shovels, walking in grass.

After technical forest fire fighting training, the PPCLI were taken to a field to practice digging fireguard.

Group of men in green army uniforms walking through a field wearing orange hard hats and carrying shovels and grub hoes. One soldier looks at the camera.

The soldiers practiced in a farmer’s field with the fire burning in the hills behind them. Some of the soldiers had just come home from service overseas. Fighting the Silver Creek Fire was going to be a different kind of battle.

Soldier in green uniform, wearing hard hat, holds hose spraying water.

Private Dallner learning how to operate a hose, preparing to fight the Silver Creek Fire.