Like many college students, Hudson High School Graduate Lewis Wiechmann spent his summer working. Unlike other students, Wiechmann’s job entailed fighting wildfires in national forests. Hudson High School graduation was held Saturday evening in the HHS gymnasium. Rain prevented the ceremony from being held at Newton Field. Many seniors participated in the final performance of the year by the Chamber Choir, directed by Andrew Haase. The class included about 450 graduates. For the second summer, Wiechmann spent nearly three months in the Red River Ranger District in Oak City, Idaho working as a firefighter. He and his crew fought the Pioneer Fire in the Boise National Forest. The wildfire grew from 3,000 acres to 60,000 during his time there and is still burning today. As a senior in Northland College, Wiechmann was interested in the job for the experience it would give him. “It’s a lot of hands-on forestry stuff,” he said. He found firefighting opportunities through the federal hiring site and was extremely interested in being a part of it. “I applied to like every single one,” he said. Wiechmann worked Monday through Friday at the beginning of the season, but later in the summer that turned into working 13 days with one day off in the pay period. “July comes and things pick up a little bit and things get drier,” he said. This summer, Wiechmann was part of the IA (initial attack) crew. He and his group were often the people sent out to small fires to put them out. Though Wiechmann said the crew also focused on smaller projects for towns in the area.