On the front line

Job Corps students get first-hand experience fighting fires

MOSES LAKE — Wildfire season is frustrating. There’s smoke in the air, closed-off roads and evacuation alerts galore, but other than being careful with barbecues and praying for the firefighters’ safety, most area residents don’t see the fire line except in the newspaper or on TV. At the Columbia Basin Job Corps Center in Moses Lake, that isn’t the case. Students from the local center, along with Job Corps students across the country, are heading off to the firelines for weeks at a time, both to fight the fires and as support firefighting crews...