The Mid-Atlantic Fire Compact – a seven-state organization of state forestry agencies committed to wildfire suppression as well as fire-suppression training – held its 2025 Mid-Atlantic Wildfire Training Academy last week at Garrett College.
Over 250 firefighters participated in this year’s academy, the seventh held at Garrett College. The Compact states are Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.
“We’re centrally located to all of the Compact states,” said Julie Yoder, Garrett College’s dean of continuing education and workforce development. “We’ve also had firefighters from as far as Arizona and California participate in this annual training.”
“The group that’s in place from Garrett College is an amazing team,” said Garrett County resident Tim Cole, who serves as logistics section chief for the academy. “That helps a lot. The location itself is another advantage – it’s pretty centrally located. It’s really nice to be able to host the Compact right here in Garrett County.”
The academy featured a dozen courses, all offered in multiple sessions. They ranged from Basic Wildland Firefighter to Fireline Leadership to specialized courses that included Fire Operations in the Wildland Urban Interface and Wildfire Behavior Calculations.
Cole noted the academy has a lot of moving pieces and a significant planning period.
“We usually have over 200 participants and 40-50 instructors,” Cole said. “It’s a pretty big operation to pull together every year. We’re already reviewing what classes we’ll offer in next year’s academy.”
Bittinger Volunteer Fire Department sent eight firefighters to the academy for the Basic Wildland Firefighter training, with two others returning from last year to take the specialized Wildland Fire Chainsaws course.
“We had four people from Bittinger attend last year and they came back saying how much they liked it,“ said Dennis Yoder, president of the Bittinger Volunteer Fire Department. “This year, we had some people taking vacation time just so they could attend.”
Yoder said firefighters receive rare training opportunities as part of academy participation.
“They’re taught tactics, fire weather, how to pump out ponds to fight fires in remote areas, and a lot of other things that are beneficial for firefighters around here to know,” he said.
Bittinger VFD Chief Justin Orendorf said wildfire training is extremely helpful for his department.
“We’re in a pretty rural area and we get a lot of wildfire-related calls,” Orendorf said. “We don’t generally get anything above and beyond structure fire training, so this is certainly beneficial training for us to have with all of the brushfire and wildfire calls we get.”
Photo Cutline: The Mid-Atlantic Fire Compact – a seven-state organization of state forestry agencies committed to wildfire suppression as well as fire-suppression training – held its 2025 Mid-Atlantic Wildfire Training Academy last week at Garrett College.
