‘Safety comes from experience’: UK Forest Fire Field Day provides students with essential firefighting skills

BEREA, Ky. (March 13, 2026) — At the University of Kentucky Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment (CAFE) in the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources (FNR), a program provides students the unique opportunity to experience wildland firefighting. The UK Fire Cats, classified as emergency firefighters with the Kentucky Division of Forestry (KDF), are on call to fight real wildland fires in their communities.

At the recent Forest Fire Field Day, students traveled to the Berea College Forestry Outreach Center to participate in a series of trainings — a required step for students that want to apply to be a future UK Fire Cat or obtain additional wildland fire certifications. Among the activities, student teams, led by forestry professionals, constructed a fireline, properly handled important tools, got into a practice fire shelter and learned general safety protection protocols.

The most important takeaway from the event, which was facilitated by the KDF and UK, was “safety, safety, safety” said John Reinstetle, assistant director of Robinson Center and forest manager at the UK Robinson Forest.

“Safety comes from experience,” Reinstetle said. “We got the chance to put firefighting tools into the hands of these students, putting them in a real-world opportunity to practice this craft. This experience will build their confidence and instill the safety protocols that will payoff later.”

The fire triangle consists of fuel, oxygen and heat, which Reinstetle said are “all required for a fire to exist.” Understanding the fire triangle was critical while students worked together on clearing a fireline, which creates a barrier to slow the spread of fires by removing combustible materials.

Doing this safely requires teamwork, communication and everyone doing their part, said Joshua Collins, a UK natural resources and environmental science student from Adair County and one of the participants at the Forest Fire Field Day.

“There’s a lot of responsibility and you have to make sure that you and your team are safe,” Collins said. “People’s lives hang in the balance, so you have to talk to each other and take it seriously.”

Participating in Forest Fire Field Day is required for students enrolled in the Forest Fire undergraduate class (FOR 255), which is open to all majors at UK.

Tyler Rumble, a mechanical engineering student in the UK Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering, also participated in the Forest Fire Field Day. Rumble, a volunteer firefighter in his hometown in Indiana, said he’s interested in “just about everything firefighting related.”

“This is fun and skills that will stick with us for the rest of our lives,” Rumble said. “When you work as a team, you get more done. When you don’t work as a team, someone might get hurt. We look out for each other and help each other. As an engineering student, I hope one day to design better tools that firefighters need.”

Rumble and Collins aspire to be members of the Fire Cat team.

For Laura Robinson, FNR academic coordinator at Martin-Gatton CAFE and course instructor, student participants have a great opportunity to take what they are learning in class, apply it and get the training to obtain their wildland firefighter type 2 certification — a required step to become a UK Fire Cat.

In addition, Robinson believes that partnerships are what make events like Forest Field Day possible and valuable for the students.

“This is a great partnership working with the Kentucky Division of Forestry; they provide the experience, resources, equipment and gear,” Robinson said. “All of this allows our students to have the hands-on training, interact with forestry professionals and learn about potential career opportunities from people that do this every day.”

With woodlands in each of the 120 counties and forest industries in 110 counties, Kentucky’s forests contribute approximately $20 billion to the Commonwealth’s economy annually.

Robinson said she hopes the forest fire course helps students appreciate the importance of Kentucky’s woodlands and the role that forestry and natural resources professionals have in managing these resources to keep our forests healthy and productive for future generations.

The UK Fire Cats program is in partnership with the FNR, KDF and U.S. Forest Service.

To be eligible for UK Fire Cats, undergraduate students must enroll in FOR 255 Forest Fire.

For questions or additional information, contact Laura Robinson, FNR academic coordinator at L.Robinson@uky.edu.

Apply or learn more about UK Fire Cats at forestry.mgcafe.uky.edu/UK-fire-cats.