Demi Garcia is 21 and a new member of the state’s elite helitack firefighting team, so new she was still awaiting her first real action Wednesday as she and team members participated in their last hands-on training in preparation for fire season.
“If there’s a fire today, I’m first out,” said the California native, who’s stationed in Ellensburg.
That call never came Wednesday, but Garcia and the other members of the helicopter-based quick-response team got some experience anyway. They were gathered at Cle Elum Municipal Airport, responding to a mock fire as news media watched.
They used a windswept meadow as base, loading baskets for cargo drops and water drops while getting valuable time with real equipment and real helicopters.
“Today is a great opportunity for our program to get some real hands-on training with the helicopters, with all the fuel trucks and with all the radios, so that we are as proficient as we can be when it comes to actually doing our task when the fires start to go off later this summer,” said helitack crew member Aaron Siebol of Ellensburg.