Fighting fires with science

Phinehas Lampman, a 2018 University of Idaho graduate, was always curious about fire and firefighting.

From a young age, he remembers watching his dad, who was a wildfire firefighter get ready for his shift early in the morning.

Today Lampman continues his father’s career after his retirement along with his youngest brother, Isaiah Lampman, who both work as wildfire firefighters.

Lampman was accepted into one of the most competitive branches of wildfire firefighting. He was scheduled to begin his training for smoke jumping—a form of firefighting requiring responders to parachute from helicopters and planes into select areas of forests to clear brush and debris to restrict the spread of the fire as well as deliver supplies to other firefighters in the area.

“Fire is a cool field to be in because there are so many niches,” Lampman said. “Its really up to you what you do and how you use your background.”

Lampman studied majored in fire ecology and forestry, but he is adamant when he says he does not believe a college degree is needed or should be required to work in firefighting. Lampman’s education, he claims, has little to do with the work he is doing now.

Being ready to start his training at the beginning of the season this year, in March Lampman suffered a knee injury off the job. He had to postpone his smoke jumper training until the next fire season where he will be given his original position in Grangeville. In the meantime, he has been working at the Grangeville Fire Dispatch while he recovers from his injury.

“It’s been really interesting working in dispatch instead of being out there,” Lampman said. “I’m not one who likes sitting still and not being outside doing something.”

Lampman says that it’s a staple for people who get into firefighting to have a passionate relationship with the wilderness, outdoor activities and to not be afraid of physical labor. But for Lampman, his recovery means not participating in much of the above.

“I’ve never been one to like being in one place,” Lampman said. “I never wanted an office job. I learned that from sitting in a lab all day my first year of college.”

Lampman began his career at UI as a bio-energy engineering student but quickly made the switch after what he described as “being very Idaho” and counting potato lab samples under a microscope. Desperate for a change he applied for a summer job in 2014 at the Clearwater-Potlatch Timber Protective Association (CPTPA) in Elk River Idaho wanting to work in the outdoors and achieve his childhood dream of becoming a firefighter like his dad.

After working for the summer, Lampman continued to be involved with wildfire firefighting, which ultimately influenced his course of study at UI and his career path as well as future goals.

“There’s a huge gap between firefighting and the science—most of what we know is from the 60s and 70s,” Lampman said. “Climate change and the expansion of humans are the two big things affecting the severity of wildfires today, but it’s hard to understand without more research.”

Lampman’s goal is to try to bridge the gap between wildfire fighting and science by bringing together his two worlds in academia and his boots on the ground experience fighting fires. He ultimately wants to complete his smoke jumping training and work in the field if he can before going back to school and getting a doctorate degree.

He wants to contribute more research to the field and dreams of one day helping create and work in a wildfire team that has a mix of experienced first responders as well as scientists and students.

“It would be amazing to have like some university students on a team like that,” Lampman said. “That way they could get up close to the fires, and researches could see them up close to better understand it.”

Rebecca Pratt can be reached at [email protected].