Getting Prepared For Fire Season

San Andreas, CA — The public will see a helicopter fly over New Hogan Reservoir along with fire equipment and hand crews on the ground the next two days as Cal Fire conducts a readiness drill involving baseline fire captains and the Vallecito Camp inmate crews.

“These readiness drills will complete the certification process the inmates have been working towards during the winter months, explains Incident Commander, Chief Roy Evans.” He adds, “Crews will be evaluated as they perform five exercises which include fire line construction, crew hike, fire engine orientation, fire hose deployment, dozer and helicopter safety, and fire shelter deployment.”

Cal Fire warns local residents may experience increased traffic during the two-day event, which will run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, May 3rd and Thursday, May 4th, near the Oak Knoll Campground.  Unit Chief Josh White notes, “These drills are an excellent opportunity for our crews and firefighters to train and prepare for the 2017 fire season.”

As reported here Monday, the wildfire risk in the Sierra Nevada foothills could spike, according to the National Interagency Fire Center, and targets the continued bark beetle epidemic as the reason why.