CAL FIRE: Firefighter II Academy in Riverside County

Saturday, April 12, 2008

CAL FIRE: Firefighter II Academy in Riverside County

Riverside County Fire Department invites the public to attend the opening of the first CAL FIRE Firefighter II Academy in Riverside County.

CAL FIRE/Riverside County Fire Department Chief John R. Hawkins invites the public and media to attend the opening of the first CAL FIRE Firefighter II Academy in Riverside County from 8 a.m. to noon on Monday, April 14, 2008 at the Ben Clark Training Center in Riverside. The Training Center is located at 3423 Davis Street in Riverside (TB 746 F5).

The new facility is a huge milestone for the CAL FIRE Training Program in Riverside County because of the multi-leveled training classes offered in fire protection, leadership, resource management and professional development. CAL FIRE¿s previous primary training academy site is located in Ione, CA, approximately 35 miles southeast of Sacramento.

The CAL FIRE Firefighter II Academy in Riverside County lends itself to the multitude of specialized training and development courses presently offered to Public Safety personnel at the Ben Clark Training Center. Firefighter II candidates will greatly benefit from this localized training because it meets the academic and physical training requirements of CAL FIRE/Riverside Unit Firefighters.

The duration of each Firefighter II academy is six weeks, or 270 hours. The class of 40 students lives at the training center dormitory for the duration of the academy. As a pre-requisite, each candidate must complete 132 hours of basic fire training. The academy day begins at 7:00 a.m., ends at 5:00 p.m., and includes various evening courses.

Candidates must pass multiple written and manipulative skills tests with 80 percent accuracy in several subjects in order to participate in the Academy Graduation Ceremony on May 23, 2008 and receive Firefighter II certification. Areas in which candidates are tested include ladders, hose, fire behavior, rescue, rope systems, ventilation, high-rise training and auto extrication. Several of the courses are graded on the pass/fail system.

More Information:
Battalion Chief
Tony Mecham
(951) 486-2889

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How fires get their names

Every year in California thousands of wildfires start throughout the state. In most cases, the dispatch center sending the initial resources to a wildland fire will designate a name for the fire, but the first on scene engine or fire official can also name the incident. Fires are usually named for the area in which they start – a geographical location, local landmark, street, lake, mountain, peak, etc. Quickly naming the fire provides responding fire resources with an additional locater, and allows fire officials to track and prioritize incidents by name. For example during the Southern California Fire Siege of 2003, the largest wildland fire in California history, the Cedar Fire in San Diego County, was named after the Cedar Creek Falls area where it started. The destructive Old Fire, which burned during the same time period in San Bernardino County, was named after the road along which it started - Old Waterman Canyon Road.

CAL FIRE is the largest fire department in California and the second largest fire department in the United States. CDF - CAL FIRE Firefighters answer the call more than 300,000 times a year. CAL FIRE Firefighters make up the fire department for 30 of our 58 counties in California and more than 100 local communities. We serve as the incident command during many of California’s most serious disasters. CAL FIRE Firefighters respond to many various types and forms of calls ranging from structural fires, to auto accidents, to earthquakes, to floods, to the spilling of hazardous materials, to every conceivable disaster; CAL FIRE answer's the calls. CAL FIRE is the largest fire department in California and the second largest fire department in the United States . CAL FIRE firefighters protect 33 million acres of State Responsibility Area (SRA). We have over 4,000 members within CAL FIRE and CAL FIRE is associated with the California Professional Firefighters (CPF) and the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF).

CFN - CALIFORNIA FIRE NEWS - CAL FIRE NEWS

Saturday, April 12, 2008