08/22/2021
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is the largest full service all risk fire department in the Western United States and operates more fire stations year round than the New York (FDNY), Los Angeles (LAFD), and Chicago (CFD) fire departments combined. It is also the second largest municipal fire department in the United States, behind only the New York Fire Department.Agency overview.
The largest and most visible part of Cal Fire operations is fire suppression. Operations are divided into 21 Operational Units, which geographically follow county lines. Each unit consists of the area of one to three counties. Operational Units are grouped under two regions: Coast-Cascade and Sierra-South. The Office of the State Fire Marshal is part of Cal Fire and oversees activities including fire prevention, regulation of fire safety, anpipelinesafety. All gas cans sold in California, for example, must be approved by the Office of the State Fire Marshal and marked with the Office's seal.
Cal Fire owns its own fleet of air tankers, tactical aircraft and helicopters, which are managed under the Aviation Management Program, additional aviation resources are leased by the department when needed. All of the fixed wing aircraft, while owned by Cal Fire, are piloted and maintained by DynCorp International. The Cal Fire Air Program is one of the largest non-military air programs in the country, consisting of 23 Grumman S-2T 1,200 gallon airtankers, 14 OV-10A airtactical aircraft and 12 UH-1H Super Huey helicopters. From the 13 air attack and 10 helitack bases located statewide, aircraft can reach more fires within 20 minutes. There are two Cal Fire training academies called the Fire Fighter Academy (FFA). The first is held at Ione, east of Sacramento. The second is at the Ben Clark Training Center in Riverside. All Cal Fire employees go through this academy once they become a permanent or limited term employee (i.e. Forestry Technician, Firefighter II, Fire Apparatus Engineer, etc.)Operational unitsEdit
Operational units are organizations designed to address fire suppression over a geographic area. They vary widely in size and terrain.
For example, Lassen-Modoc-Plumas Operational Unit encompasses three rural counties and consists of eight fire stations, one Helitack Base, three conservation camps and an inmate firefighter training center. Fire suppression resources include 13 front-line fire engines, 1 helicopter, 3 bulldozers and 14 inmate fire crews. The unit shares an interagency emergency command center with federal agencies including the US Forest Service, National Park Service, and the Bureau of Land Management. An interagency center contributes to economies of scale, supports cooperation, and lends itself to a more seamless operation. The area has fragmented jurisdictions across a large rural area along the Nevada and Oregon state lines.[12]
Riverside Operational Unit by itself is one of the largest fire departments in the nation, with 95 fire stations and about 230 pieces of equipment. The Riverside Operational Unit operates the Riverside County Fire Department under contract as well operates eighteen city fire departments and one community services district fire department. Nine of these stations belong to the state, with rest owned by the respective local government entity. The unit operates its own emergency command center in Perris. Terrain served includes urban and suburbanareas of the Inland Empire and communities in the metropolitan Palm Springs area. The area includes forested mountains, the Colorado River basin, the Mojave Desert and Interstate 10.
Northern RegionEditAmador-El Dorado Unit - AEU / 2700 (Including Sacramento and Alpine Counties)Butte Unit - BTU / 2100Humboldt-Del Norte Unit - HUU / 1200Lassen-Modoc-Plumas Unit - LMU / 2200 (Including Plumas County as of June 2008)Mendocino Unit - MEU / 1100Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit - NEU / 2300 (Including Sutter and Sierra Counties)San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit - CZU / 1700Santa Clara Unit - SCU / 1600 (including Contra Costa, Alameda, Santa Clara and parts of San Joaquin, and Stanislaus Counties)Shasta-Trinity Unit - SHU / 2400Siskiyou Unit - SKU / 2600Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit - LNU / 1400 (including: Solano, Yolo, Colusa Counties)Tehama-Glenn Unit - TGU / 2500Southern RegionEditFresno-Kings Unit - FKU / 4300Madera-Mariposa-Merced Unit - MMU / 4200Riverside Unit -RRU / 3100San Benito-Monterey Unit - BEU/ 4600San Bernardino Unit - BDU / 3500 (Including Inyo and Mono Counties)San Diego Unit -MVU / 3300 (Including Imperial County)San Luis Obispo Unit - SLU / 3400Tulare Unit - TUU / 4100Tuolumne-Calaveras Unit - TCU / 4400 (Including portions of San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Alpine counties)CountiesEdit
The counties of Marin (MRN), Kern (KRN), Santa Barbara (SBC), Ventura (VNC), Los Angeles (LAC) and Orange (ORC) are paid by Cal Fire to provide fire protection to state responsibility areas within those counties rather than Cal Fire providing direct fire protection, and are commonly known as the "Contract Counties".
Lawmakers in Sacramento have mandated that every Operational Unit develop and implement an annual fire management plan. The plan will develop cooperation and community programs to reduce damage from, and costs of, fires in California.[14] One metric used by fire suppression units is initial attack success: fires stopped by the initial resources, (equipment and people,) sent to the incident.
Established, 1885
Employees, 5,400
Permanent, 2,400
Seasonal, 5,350
Volunteer, 4,300 inmates
Staffing Career Fire Chief, Thom Porter
EMS level ALS
Facilities and equipment Stations,
237 owned /operated, 575 operated
Engines, 343 owned, 624 Operated
Trucks, 28
Rescues, 184
Ambulances, 63 Paramedic Unit
HAZMAT 9
Bulldozers59
Airplanes, 23 Air tankers,
Tactical Planes, 15.
Helicopters, 12
