Cal Fire boosts staff early for fire season

Dozens of seasonal Cal Fire firefighters hired this week to staff North Bay engines on Tuesday brushed up on their skills at a Napa training center where they pulled hoses, hoisted ladders and honed safety steps.

The 67 firefighters were brought on duty t his week as state fire officials continued an early spring staffing increase due to drought-driven, enhanced fire concerns.

This week’s hires are enough to staff 11 engines. They’ll be spread throughout six counties - Sonoma, Napa, Lake, Solano, Yolo and Colusa.

“In Sonoma County, it means five more stations opening Monday,” Cal Fire Battalion Chief Marshall Turbeville said.

That will mean all of Sonoma County’s nine Cal Fire stations will be open for the season. The firefighters will be stationed in Cazadero, Occidental, Glen Ellen, Cloverdale and Sea Ranch.

“It’s going to be an early, long and potentially significant, active fire season,” said Turbeville, who supervises three Cal Fire stations in Sonoma County’s North Coast. “It’s good to be proactive and be ready for what Mother Nature may throw at us.”

In an unusual move illustrating the statewide worry, Cal Fire officials took the precautionary step of sending strike teams to Santa Barbara County, not because any fires are burning, but because strong winds are forecast all week in the wildfire-prone area, Cal Fire Capt. Joe Fletcher said.

Three engines from the North Bay and one from Mendocino County left Monday night for Santa Barbara.

“With the drought it’s drier than normal for this time of year and there is a higher level of alert,” said Fletcher, a Cal Fire spokesman who works out of the region’s St. Helena headquarters. “The drought is the principal driving force.”

Last year was a very active and long fire season, with agencies around the state battling 1,000 more fires than normal, officials said. Of those fires, there were many particularly large blazes burning at the same time, in May in Southern California and in September in Northern California.

Wintertime fires throughout California have been on an upswing in recent years. As of Saturday, Cal Fire has had 666 wildland fires reported this year, burning 3,373 acres. Last year in the same time period there had been 808 fires burning 2,385 acres.

The average for the past five years for the first four months is 451 fires for 1,271 acres, according to Cal Fire statistics. Most winter fires are held to spots along roadways and a few acres from escaped control burns.

In non-drought years, when rains have been plenty and the “fire season” runs more typically from July through October, the state would hire their summertime firefighters starting in late May and as late as July 1.

But the dry conditions, the cumulative lack of rain and the biggest unknown - the weather - has officials moving faster. Hires in the past few years have come four to six weeks earlier than the average, each year a little earlier than the last. Most of last year’s early hires came in late April.

Cal Fire regions throughout the state have been bringing on their seasonal hires earlier than normal. Two weeks ago, 48 firefighters were added to the state’s North Bay roster.

Monday’s hires spent about 10 hours Tuesday working on basic wildland firefighting skills. One of the 65 firefighters working through the refresher course was Natasha Peston.

“We’re getting back into the swing of things, getting back to work,” said Peston, who was hired this week for her fifth season. She’ll help staff Lake County’s Kelsey-Cobb station.

Peston, who works during the winter as a Sonoma County parks aide, said when spring arrives she can’t wait to get back to firefighting.

Tuesday’s training day was a reunion of sorts, she said, for the seasonal folks. “It’s been great. Morale is good. I love it.”

For information on fire safety tips for residents in wildland areas or for other fire-related issues go to readyforwildfire.org or the Cal Fire website at www.fire.ca.gov.

You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com or Twitter@rossmannreport.