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  • Brandon Byrd loads his equipment into a charter bus Friday at the Bureau of Indian Affairs office in Muskogee. Byrd and 39 other bureau firefighters are headed to Fort Smith, Ark., to a mobilization area before they are sent out to fight wildfires across the country.

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June 30, 2012

Firefighters muster for national duty

BIA crews have wide range of possible postings

By Dylan Goforth Phoenix Staff Writer

— Firefighters from across the state left from Muskogee on Friday for Fort Smith, Ark. After that, it’s destination unknown.

The firefighters were from different Bureau of Indian Affairs offices in Oklahoma, said Shelden Sankey, a BIA fuel technician.

The crews were from the Chickasaw, Seminole, Osage and Creek Nations.

“They don’t know exactly where they’re going yet,” Sankey said. “They’ll be (in Fort Smith) at the mobilization point and they’ll be called out from there.”

He said the firefighters could be sent to Colorado, which is being decimated by enormous fires. Sankey had a map listing various areas of “large incidents” that were burning as of Friday.

The map had 58 locations listed.

“They could be sent anywhere,” Sankey said. “But they know that. They signed up for that.”

Brad Peak, a national resource specialist with the BIA, said the agency’s firefighters  have to take a firefighter exam and pass a physical test, just like any other firefighter.

James Beets, 24, of Picher said he joined the BIA fire crew three years ago. Beets went to Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, where he was a member of the forestry program.

Beets said the 40-man crew would stay busy in Arkansas while waiting for an assignment.

“We’ll be doing various stuff around Fort Smith, probably,” he said. “Since we don’t really know where or when we’re going, they find stuff for us to do.”

Simeon Gipson, a bureau firefighter, said that although the crew is all on “contract work” – being paid only when needed and called – the majority stays busy.

“In Oklahoma you have a fire season that pretty much runs all year long,” he said. “The guys go out on probably about three national calls a year, and then the rest of the time is fighting local fires.”

Sankey said bureau crews fought a fire near Tulsa last week that burned about 500 acres.

“Our fire season is serious and dangerous, and these guys do serious work,” he said.

Reach Dylan Goforth at (918) 684-2903 or dgoforth@muskogeephoenix.com.

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