By MATT CHITTUM
THE ROANOKE TIMES

For $6.65 an hour and a chance to flee the barracks for awhile, you can get some Virginia Military Institute cadets to do about anything — even suck smoke on the line of a 1,000-acre forest fire.

Eighteen VMI cadets, all members of the school's volunteer firefighting detail, were among those who patrolled the fire line during the windy Tuesday night when the Fort Lewis Mountain forest fire escaped the clutches of firefighters and raged out of control again.

"We caught a pretty wild night," said Paul Staton, the cadet in charge of the detail.

The cadets' job from 8 p.m. Tuesday to 6 a.m. Wednesday was to patrol the firebreak and keep the fire from crossing it by stamping out sparks and shoveling dirt on spot fires.

High winds blew cinders across the break all night, Staton said.

"It's a little dangerous," he said. "You have to know what you're doing pretty much."

First-timers have to rely on all they learned in videotapes and during two days of training by the Virginia Department of Forestry that focuses on containing a fire with a rake, a shovel and an axe.

"It's hard to fit firefighting into everybody's schedule up here," Staton said, but the detail responds quickly when needed by the forestry department. The members become temporary state employees.

The full-time firefighters seem to appreciate the help.

"They tell us that they're glad that we're there," Staton said. "We picked up the night shift the other night and they were pretty happy about that."

Staton, a 21-year-old senior majoring in civil engineering, got his start on the detail when his older brother recruited him as a sophomore. He helped on a fire on Afton Mountain that year and was hooked.

"It gets the adrenaline running," he said. "You get a good respect for fire."

The detail has been around at VMI since at least 1950, according to VMI spokesman Mike Strickler. He wasn't sure of the group's origin, but said its mission is in line with the "citizen-soldier" concept VMI tries to instill in its cadets.

"We prepare the kids to be active participants in their communities and to help others," he said.

As an outdoorsman, Staton also likes the idea of protecting the woods.

"It makes me feel good," he said. "I feel like I'm giving back to the forest."