Photo courtesy of Fr. Bill Waln
By Kate Irelan
What started as a way to pay for college, Rev. Bill Waln with Grace Episcopal Church in Hutchinson made a career fighting fire, which grew into a lifelong passion for firefighting and helping people internationally.
Waln was a wildland firefighter for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service for 38 years. He now works as the State Fire Management Officer for the Kansas Forest Service. He made the career change as he saw it as an opportunity to provide a positive impact to the firefighters of Kansas. Waln said what keeps him going is the people. He enjoys working with highly skilled people who are passionate about providing service to the public. In 2015, Waln completed a three-year seminary program through the Bishop Kemper School for Ministry in Topeka. He was ordained into the order of the Presbyterate in 2017. He serves as an assistant priest at Grace Episcopal Church in Hutchinson and works with Fr. Ted Blakley.
“I’m lucky he is kind with my schedule. He knows my job as a firefighter often pulls me away from home, and sometimes I am gone for 14 days at a time,” said Waln.
Waln served on Incident Management Teams for 25 years, and for the last six years, he served as an Incident Commander for a Complex Incident Management Team. An Incident Management Team is comprised of individuals with a special skill set who come in to manage large, complex fires. He said the job takes him to fight fires nationwide and across the northern border. Waln said when it comes to fighting fires,
“It could be in California, Montana, Idaho or even Canada.” The most recent complex fire Waln worked on was the West Mountain Complex in August 2024, where four fires were burning north of Boise, Idaho, near Cascade, Idaho.
“Qualifications for the National Complex Management Team program are successive; it does take time and effort to gain higher-level qualifications. It took me 25 years to gain the qualification of Incident Commander,” Waln said. “Incident Command System qualification balances formal training with documented experience. Wildfire training courses are taught all over the United States and meet the standards set by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group. They set the standards and the coursework. The Kansas Forest Service is a member of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group.” He said that the Hutchinson Community College fire program offers beginning levels of firefighter training and does not offer this higher-level training.
The Kansas Forest Service Fire Program offers support across the state and training grants for equipment. According to the Kansas Forest Service website, the mission of the Fire Management Program is to empower fire departments to provide better service to Kansans through training, equipment, and financial assistance. The Kansas Forest Service is housed as an independent agency within K-State Research and Extension.
Part of what he does is to assist volunteer fire departments in Kansas. Waln said, “Volunteerism has fallen in many rural areas across the nation, including ambulances, EMT, libraries, etc. and it has affected rural departments that are primarily run by volunteers. We have to find ways to assist and bring the resources they need. The number one job is to support the fire department in suppression, training and equipment.”
Waln said federal grants fund 75% of the Kansas Forest Service Fire Management. While not speaking as an official KFSFM representative, he said it’s too early to tell how recent cuts from the federal government will impact the service. “We are very closely watching how funding is impacted. If we do receive federal funding cuts, we would not be able to provide those services at a level we have been,” said Waln. “If fed grant funding dries up, it will shut us down.”
“Unfortunately, the Kansas Forest Service just requested a budget increase of $1.5 million in funding from the Kansas legislature, and it didn’t pass in committee. This just happened Wednesday,” said Waln. He said Governor Laura Kelly created a wildfire task force to document and research Kansas landowners’ needs and make Kansas more resilient in response to wildfires. Kelly’s report was released in November 2023.
“The report recommendations are intended to protect the people of Kansas, larger values at risk, and obtain pass-through dollars for landowners to help them reduce Eastern Red Cedar trees on their land,” Waln said. “The funding requested by the Kansas Forests Service was what the task force recommended to Governor Kelly. In addition to the pass-through grants to help Kansas landowners deal with hazardous fuel reduction, the funding request would have increased wildfire mitigation efforts to communities and increased the ability to assist small fire departments with training and equipment as well prescribed fire training for private landowners.”
The Kansas Forest Service helps landowners manage their lands. Waln said, “They can write a prescription for a management plan for landowners, but because the Kansas legislature denied the request for additional funding, they can’t help landowners fund the implementation of the management plan.”
If you are a landowner interested in learning more about your wildfire risk, visit the Kansas Wildfire Risk Assessment website.
To learn more about the Kansas Forest Service, visit their website, https://www.kansasforests.org
To learn more about the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, visit their website, https://www.nwcg.gov
