When you think of firefighters, you likely envision those who respond to burning homes, free people from wrecked cars, handle smoke investigations and even rescue cats from trees.

There is another kind of firefighter. One who responds when our woodlands burn.

These firefighters often can’t use 5-inch hoses and 100-foot ladders. Instead, they haul their gear - some of it carried on their backs - deep into forests. They scale mountains, circumvent rocks and logs on uneven paths and endure other uncharted perils while they battle fast-moving, unpredictable blazes in sites far out of the view of the public.

On Saturday and Sunday, forest firefighters from Carbon, Lehigh and Schuylkill counties held a joint training exercise near the old Weatherly Reservoir off a railroad bed at the base of Buck Mountain. No live fire was involved in the exercise.

They warn that a potential busy forest fire season could be looming because of the dry weather that’s been occurring.

The exercise was overseen by Heather Kerr of Sunbury, assistant district forester for the Weiser Fire District. Kerr has experience battling forest fires not only locally but in eight other states: California, Minnesota, Oregon, Colorado, Virginia, West Virginia, Montana and Idaho.

Kerr said this was the first such training session of this magnitude of which she is aware.

The local training exercise helps qualify local forest firefighters to be dispatched to other states hit hard by woodland blazes.

Among those who participated was Francis Lukasevich, age 72, of Jim Thorpe. He has been a forest firefighter for 56 years, in addition to still being active in the municipal fire company.

Lukasevich, like many other local forest firefighters, has been dispatched in past years to other states to help fight fires.

He said despite his age, he intends to continue serving the fire service. “As long as I remain healthy, I’m going to keep doing it,” he said.

In charge of the local squads were forest fire wardens Joe Rogowitz of Carbon County and Randy Metzger of Lehigh County.

Rogowitz said the forest fire seasons in Pennsylvania are generally in the spring between March and mid-May and in the fall from late September to late November, although there are no definitive periods.

“One year our department fought a fire on Dec. 23,” he said.

In 2021, there were 1,371 wildfires in Pennsylvania that consumed 2,981 acres.

Rogowitz is concerned that this fall could be busy because of the dry conditions. Although there was plenty of greenery surrounding the workers, the forest floor had dry leaves and dead brush that could cause a fire to spread quickly.

“We have borderline fire weather today,” Rogowitz said. “There’s low humidity and everything is dry.”

Kerr said the joint training exercise is “a good idea, especially when neighboring (fire) districts have fires right on the boundary line.”

She said support crews from adjoining districts have been used four times in the past year, twice on overnight fires. She said the overnight camping the firefighters experienced at this past weekend’s camp is similar to the camping arrangements conducted at some out-of-state fire scenes; especially in the West.

Two firefighters from the Weiser District have just finished detail helping with the fires in Idaho, she said. They have begun their drive home.

The first day of the two-day training was spent doing cutting exercises, Rogowitz said. “We were doing saw work and dropping hazard trees. In all nearly half a mile of work was completed.”

While water packs and hand tools are still vital in battling woodland fires, the specialized firefighters have come to rely also on pumping water to scenes from reservoirs, lakes, ponds and streams.

On Saturday, the firefighters extended hose 2,600 feet up the Buck Mountain and supplied a potential scene with water through series pumping. This involved setting a pump in the railroad bed, pumping water half way up the mountain from the former reservoir and then continuing the pumping with a connecting hydraulic unit.

Rogowitz and Metzger both said they try to hold training at least once a month with their units. In the summer they take time off for vacations. Often that is when firefighters are dispatched to western fires.

The training was held on state-owned land. There were 2,702 acres of land acquired for recreation and is open for nonmotorized recreation including hiking and mountain biking. It is not open to ATVs or dirt bikes.

Rogowitz said he feels the training is important. He said there are a lot of homes that are surrounded by woodlands and could be placed in the path of forest fires.

“These guys are training to make it that residents in those homes can rest easier,” he said.

Local fire wardens say there is a need for more people to join the effort to save our forests.

For information on becoming a forest firefighter, contact: Joe Rogowitz, Carbon County at 610-573-4864 or Randy Metzger, Lehigh County at 610-739-9677.