Fire Training Exercise Near Angels Camp

Angels Camp, CA — A CAL Fire training exercise is getting underway this morning outside of Angels Camp, so be prepared for some fire activity in the area.

Live fire training is planned from 10am-5pm, today through Friday. It will take place at the Whittle Vegetation Management Site, west of Angels Camp, on the east side of Fowler Peak Lookout.

Around 300 burn piles, gathered during CAL Fire’s heavy equipment operator training classes, will be lit by a helitorch in a controlled environment. The helitorch is a firefighting tool suspended underneath a helicopter that dispenses ignited gelled fuel.

CAL Fire Tuolumne-Calaveras Assistant Chief Jeff Sanders says, “It is something (helitorch) that we haven’t used in a few years because of the drought. As we are coming out of the drought we anticipate doing more vegetation management burns and this is a tool we certainly want to use with some of the chaparral species. It is a great opportunity to get all of the folks assigned at Columbia Air Attack Base, and some of our adjoining facilities, trained in its use.”

Resources that will be on scene this week include the helicopter, three engines, three crews and two bulldozers.