OAKHURST, Calif. (KMJ/KFSN) — Folks from the National Parks Service, National Forest Service and Fish & Wildlife are gathered in the foothills of the Sierra this week.
Nearly two dozen people from across the country have gathered in a classroom at Yosemite Adult School in Oakhurst.
Nancy Phillipe with Yosemite National Park is one of the instructors teaching the group.
“We have students from Olympic National Park here, a student from Theodore Roosevelt which is in North Dakota,” Phillipe said.
They’re each here to learn the best ways to get information out to the public in emergency situations such as wild land fires.
They will be the individuals who will post on social media and talk to the local news outlets about the fire fight, evacuations and any other necessary information they need to get out to the impacted communities.
“These are the folks that you see in the field that are in the know of what’s happening with the incident,” Phillipe said.
Hannah Bradburn is taking part in the class.
She’s the visual information specialist at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan.
“I’ve never been to California before,” Bradburn said.
She says fire isn’t something they typically deal with in upper Michigan, so all of this is new to her.
“I really hope I leave with just an understanding of how the fire world works,” Bradburn said.
The class is learning how to work with the media to get information out and the best ways to share information internally.
Tony Minser, an instructor at the Yosemite Adult School, says he’s grateful they were able to help host.
“For all of the students that are here, I want them to have an amazing experience here, good facilities, excellent instructors, great collaborative scenarios that they may not have known on Monday, but they’ll know down the road.”
Phillipe says she hopes students leave with a better understanding of what to do in emergency situations and a belief that they’re prepared.
“Having them kind of exposed to the scenarios that we have so that when we have these incident happen on their forest or in their park that it’s not the first time that they’re experiencing those feelings and they have a little more confidence.” Phillipe said.
The nearly two dozen students will wrap up training Friday.
They will take what they learned back to their respective locations across the country.
