Fire school in Jefferson City this week

Students from seven states will attend this year's University of Missouri Summer Fire School and the Midwest Wildfire Training Academy, which starts Wednesday and runs through next weekend.

The economic impact of the Summer Fire School on the Jefferson City economy is more than $400,000, according to the Jefferson City Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The more than 420 participants include students, faculty and staff who support the fire school and wildfire training academy. Faculty members are considered experts in their fields and come from across Missouri as well as many other parts of the country.

The purpose of the first summer fire school, conducted on the MU campus in Columbia in 1933, was to teach modern methods of firefighting.

In 2002, the Big Rivers Forest Fire Management Compact joined with MU to establish the wildfire training academy and offer nationally certified wildfire management courses.

The fire school and wildfire training academy offers 19 courses ranging from eight-40 course hours. Many of the classes offer continuing education units for professional certifications: fire inspectors, instructors and investigators; certified foresters; law enforcement officers; and EMTs and paramedics. Several courses are approved for college-level credit. Wildfire courses train students to manage local wildfire suppression and meet national qualifications to support mobilization needs throughout the nation.

Missouri has more than 900 fire departments and 24,000 firefighters. Departments can be categorized as municipal, fire districts or fire associations.

Missouri mirrors the national average with roughly 80-85 percent of firefighters being volunteer, and the remaining 15-20 percent being career. The state also averages 5-7 percent female firefighters.

Statistics show nearly 40 percent of the participants who come to the fire school represent career departments, and the remaining 60 percent represent volunteer departments. Female firefighters represent 12 percent of the fire school population.

The wildfire training academy is sponsored by the Big Rivers Forest Fire Management Compact, which includes Missouri, Indiana, Iowa and Illinois and is supported by the U.S. Forest Service, Northeast Region.

In Missouri, there are more than 3,700 wildfires each year that burn 55,000 acres of forest and grassland.