Weather and human resources permitting, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection will conduct a prescribed burn under the Foresthill Bridge in Placer County on Friday.
Why: The primary purpose is to reduce hazardous fuel below the Foresthill Bridge, allowing Placer County to safely perform seismic retrofit activities on the bridge, according to a Cal Fire news release. The controlled fire, designed to reduce vegetation that could fuel wildfires, has been postponed twice in recent weeks, first due to unfavorable weather and then because a wildland fire tied up firefighters and equipment needed for the project.
When: Burn is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. and continue into the evening hours.
Where: The prescribed burn is to be conducted on 55 acres under the bridge along the middle fork of the American River, approximately one mile northeast of Auburn. It will involve fires on the east and west sides of the river. Smoke will be visible from Interstate 80, Highway 49, Auburn, Foresthill and surrounding communities.
Who: CAL FIRE fire engines, hand crews, bulldozers and a helicopter will be used keep the fire within existing containment lines. Cal Fire personnel also will continue to check the area for several days after the prescribed burn.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
CAL FIRE: Controlled Burn - Joseph D. Grant County Park / Santa Clara County
Cal Fire plans controlled burn Wednesday morning east of San Jose
What: The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is planning to burn about 600 acres of Joseph D. Grant County Park in south Santa Clara County on Wednesday.
Where: The burn project is located on Mount Hamilton Road, about 10 miles east of San Jose, and will produce a column of smoke visible to most of San Jose and the south Santa Clara County, according to Cal Fire officials.
Why: Cal Fire crews want to remove brush and non-native grasses and noxious weeds in an attempt to bring back some of the native species of grasses, according to Cal Fire Battalion Chief Jim Crawford.
Cal Fire and State Parks have used prescribed burns for years to enhance the watershed, improve wildlife habitat and protect against wildfire.
When: The burn is dependent on favorable weather conditions and approval from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. The burns typically begin mid-morning.
Who: Cal Fire will be working with the professors and graduate students with the San Jose State University meteorology department, who are doing studies related to wildfires and firefighter safety, Crawford said.
More information: call 408-779-0930 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
CAL FIRE News: AEU Firefighter injured in engine backing accident
July 10, 2011 at 1830 hours, a CalFire Firefighter, while acting as a back-up person for an engine company, sustained a serious head injury when he became pinned between 2 CAL FIRE engine companies.
The incident occurred following release from a companies cover assignment at Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit.
An Amador-El Dorado Unit (AEU) engine strike team stopped at a local restaurant to eat. While attempting to back the AEU engine into a space immediately adjacent to another engine, the right rear tire rode up on the curb. When the fire apparatus operator moved the engine off of the curb, the engine shifted. The Firefighter who was acting as back-up person became pinned between the two engine companies.
The Firefighter received a serious head injury and was transported by ground ambulance to a local trauma center for treatment. We wish the Firefighter a successful recover
The incident occurred following release from a companies cover assignment at Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit.
An Amador-El Dorado Unit (AEU) engine strike team stopped at a local restaurant to eat. While attempting to back the AEU engine into a space immediately adjacent to another engine, the right rear tire rode up on the curb. When the fire apparatus operator moved the engine off of the curb, the engine shifted. The Firefighter who was acting as back-up person became pinned between the two engine companies.
The Firefighter received a serious head injury and was transported by ground ambulance to a local trauma center for treatment. We wish the Firefighter a successful recover
CAL FIRE: Ken Pimlott, has been appointed director of CAL FIRE
He has served in multiple resource management and fire protection positions with the department since 1993 and has served as acting director since 2010.
Pimlott began his career as a seasonal fire fighter in 1987 and is a Registered Professional Forester.
This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $167,664. Pimlott is registered decline-to-state.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
USFS: Nine Firefighters Injured When Crew Buggy Rolls In ANF
9 firefighters injured in Calif. apparatus crash
PALMDALE, Calif. — At least nine firefighters were injured in California on Monday when their U.S. Forest Service truck crashed near the Angeles National Forest.
The apparatus rolled off the road in Palmdale after the driver swerved to avoid an animal, according to KABC.
Los Angeles County firefighters extricated two firefighters from the truck, which was transporting them back to their station after a shift.
Four firefighters were airlifted to local hospitals.
All of the injuries sustained were minor to moderate.
Source: Fire Rescue 1 - Link
Two firefighters required extrication and four were airlifted after the driver of the vehicle swerved to avoid an animal
PALMDALE, Calif. — At least nine firefighters were injured in California on Monday when their U.S. Forest Service truck crashed near the Angeles National Forest.
The apparatus rolled off the road in Palmdale after the driver swerved to avoid an animal, according to KABC.
Los Angeles County firefighters extricated two firefighters from the truck, which was transporting them back to their station after a shift.
Four firefighters were airlifted to local hospitals.
All of the injuries sustained were minor to moderate.
Source: Fire Rescue 1 - Link
Sunday, July 3, 2011
CDCR: Conservation Fire Camps Under Fire
Mother of murdered officer continues push for fire-camp safety
Though it’s been nearly five years since an escaped inmate shot and killed her son, a San Francisco police officer, Sandy Tuvera still struggles to talk about her loss.
“I talked with him until he took his last breath,” the 56-year-old South San Francisco woman said Thursday, her voice quavering over the phone. “That is nothing that a mother should have to do.”
While Bryan Tuvera’s death is tough to discuss, she has no problem expressing her lingering frustration with a state prison system that continues to place violent felons in the state’s minimum-security fire camps, even though after her son’s death she lobbied lawmakers to change camp policies. His killer escaped from a fire camp in Humboldt County.
“These aren’t Cub Scouts,” she said. “This isn’t the honor system there. What are they thinking? What are they thinking? ... They need more stringent guidelines of who they put in there.”
Tuvera said she’s hoping to again voice her concerns to lawmakers later this month in Sacramento. In response to a Record Searchlight investigation this spring that revealed one in five of the state’s fire camp inmates has been convicted of violent felonies, State Sen. Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, organized bipartisan hearings. LaMalfa had hoped to hold the hearings July 14, but his spokesman said Friday that a firm date had yet to be set.
“If I can do this, if I can speak to get them to make a change, I can do something positive out of a terrible, terrible, God-awful tragedy,” she said.
It wouldn’t be the first time she’s tried.
In 2007, Sandy Tuvera testified before the Assembly Public Safety Committee with her son’s widow, fellow police officer Salina Tuvera, about the need to monitor fire camp inmates with GPS-tracking ankle bracelets.
The testimony came in support of Assembly Bill 439, the “Bryan Tuvera Fire Camp Safety Act” authored by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, a San Francisco Democrat.
The bill passed the committee but was later gutted in the appropriations process.
It would be too expensive, lawmakers determined, to place GPS devices on all 4,000 inmates on the fire crews at the state’s 41 fire camps.
“That costs money, but you can’t put a price tag on a life,” Sandy Tuvera said.
Sandy Tuvera is outraged that nothing has changed since February 2005, when 33-year-old Marlon Ruff, who had been convicted of beating and robbing an armored car guard, walked away from Eel River Conservation Camp in Humboldt County.
After eluding capture for nearly two years, Ruff shot and killed Sandy Tuvera’s 28-year-old son when the officer chased him into a parking garage in December 2006.
Though news reports from the time said Tuvera’s partner returned fire, killing Ruff, Sandy Tuvera said investigators later determined Ruff shot himself.
She said her son died 12 years to the day after his father, a police dispatcher, had died.
Bryan and Salina Tuvera had been married for 70 days.
After her son’s death, Sandy Tuvera’s outrage grew as she heard police, prosecutors and even Ruff’s public defender say they were stunned to learn he’d been placed in an inmate work crew, given his violent history.
Ruff first was convicted of grand theft in San Francisco in 1996. He was in and out of prison and jail in the years that followed, racking up two more felony convictions for receiving stolen property and being a felon with a gun, The San Francisco Chronicle reported after the shooting.
Ruff was on parole in 2003 when he began following a Brinks courier driver named Miguel Galang, according to Gregg Oglesby, the Daly City police detective who investigated Ruff’s robbery.
Ruff overwhelmed the unarmed Galang in a covered area attached to a shopping center parking lot, repeatedly punching the man’s face, knocking him unconscious, Oglesby said.
Since he didn’t use a weapon in the attack, a jury later convicted Ruff of second-degree robbery.
“It never, ever, ever should have happened,” Sandy Tuvera said of Ruff’s camp placement.
Her reaction was similar to what local law enforcement officials said last summer when they learned a 36-year-old suspected white supremacist named Jeffory Shook walked away from Washington Ridge Conservation Camp in Nevada City.
Before his conviction, Shook had twice been shot by police after leading officers on car chases.
During the three weeks after his escape, he led officers on three more car chases before he was recaptured in Siskiyou County.
After Shook was recaptured, state prison officials said he was eligible for camp placement because he hadn’t actually been convicted of violent crimes.
LaMalfa spokesman Mark Spannagel said that as the senator’s staff members investigate the fire camp issue in preparation for the hearing, that’s an oft-repeated explanation from prison officials describing why inmates with violent pasts are being placed under light guard at the camps.
“That’s not a sufficient answer,” Spannagel said of the prison officials’ explanations.
But Facilities Capt. Rae Stewart, who oversees the camps for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said the prison system’s screening process weeds out the unsafe inmates.
Though around a dozen inmates escape each year, he said the camp program is hugely beneficial to the state’s firefighting efforts and the inmates, who learn a trade for when they transition back to society.
“The benefit far outweighs the potential risk,” Stewart said. “There’s always going to be some cases that draw (negative) attention.”
Original Source Article: Record Searchlight - Link
 |
| Sandy and Bryan Tuvera |
“I talked with him until he took his last breath,” the 56-year-old South San Francisco woman said Thursday, her voice quavering over the phone. “That is nothing that a mother should have to do.”
While Bryan Tuvera’s death is tough to discuss, she has no problem expressing her lingering frustration with a state prison system that continues to place violent felons in the state’s minimum-security fire camps, even though after her son’s death she lobbied lawmakers to change camp policies. His killer escaped from a fire camp in Humboldt County.
“These aren’t Cub Scouts,” she said. “This isn’t the honor system there. What are they thinking? What are they thinking? ... They need more stringent guidelines of who they put in there.”
Tuvera said she’s hoping to again voice her concerns to lawmakers later this month in Sacramento. In response to a Record Searchlight investigation this spring that revealed one in five of the state’s fire camp inmates has been convicted of violent felonies, State Sen. Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, organized bipartisan hearings. LaMalfa had hoped to hold the hearings July 14, but his spokesman said Friday that a firm date had yet to be set.
“If I can do this, if I can speak to get them to make a change, I can do something positive out of a terrible, terrible, God-awful tragedy,” she said.
It wouldn’t be the first time she’s tried.
In 2007, Sandy Tuvera testified before the Assembly Public Safety Committee with her son’s widow, fellow police officer Salina Tuvera, about the need to monitor fire camp inmates with GPS-tracking ankle bracelets.
The testimony came in support of Assembly Bill 439, the “Bryan Tuvera Fire Camp Safety Act” authored by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, a San Francisco Democrat.
The bill passed the committee but was later gutted in the appropriations process.
It would be too expensive, lawmakers determined, to place GPS devices on all 4,000 inmates on the fire crews at the state’s 41 fire camps.
“That costs money, but you can’t put a price tag on a life,” Sandy Tuvera said.
Sandy Tuvera is outraged that nothing has changed since February 2005, when 33-year-old Marlon Ruff, who had been convicted of beating and robbing an armored car guard, walked away from Eel River Conservation Camp in Humboldt County.
After eluding capture for nearly two years, Ruff shot and killed Sandy Tuvera’s 28-year-old son when the officer chased him into a parking garage in December 2006.
Though news reports from the time said Tuvera’s partner returned fire, killing Ruff, Sandy Tuvera said investigators later determined Ruff shot himself.
She said her son died 12 years to the day after his father, a police dispatcher, had died.
Bryan and Salina Tuvera had been married for 70 days.
After her son’s death, Sandy Tuvera’s outrage grew as she heard police, prosecutors and even Ruff’s public defender say they were stunned to learn he’d been placed in an inmate work crew, given his violent history.
Ruff first was convicted of grand theft in San Francisco in 1996. He was in and out of prison and jail in the years that followed, racking up two more felony convictions for receiving stolen property and being a felon with a gun, The San Francisco Chronicle reported after the shooting.
Ruff was on parole in 2003 when he began following a Brinks courier driver named Miguel Galang, according to Gregg Oglesby, the Daly City police detective who investigated Ruff’s robbery.
Ruff overwhelmed the unarmed Galang in a covered area attached to a shopping center parking lot, repeatedly punching the man’s face, knocking him unconscious, Oglesby said.
Since he didn’t use a weapon in the attack, a jury later convicted Ruff of second-degree robbery.
“It never, ever, ever should have happened,” Sandy Tuvera said of Ruff’s camp placement.
Her reaction was similar to what local law enforcement officials said last summer when they learned a 36-year-old suspected white supremacist named Jeffory Shook walked away from Washington Ridge Conservation Camp in Nevada City.
Before his conviction, Shook had twice been shot by police after leading officers on car chases.
During the three weeks after his escape, he led officers on three more car chases before he was recaptured in Siskiyou County.
After Shook was recaptured, state prison officials said he was eligible for camp placement because he hadn’t actually been convicted of violent crimes.
LaMalfa spokesman Mark Spannagel said that as the senator’s staff members investigate the fire camp issue in preparation for the hearing, that’s an oft-repeated explanation from prison officials describing why inmates with violent pasts are being placed under light guard at the camps.
“That’s not a sufficient answer,” Spannagel said of the prison officials’ explanations.
But Facilities Capt. Rae Stewart, who oversees the camps for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said the prison system’s screening process weeds out the unsafe inmates.
Though around a dozen inmates escape each year, he said the camp program is hugely beneficial to the state’s firefighting efforts and the inmates, who learn a trade for when they transition back to society.
“The benefit far outweighs the potential risk,” Stewart said. “There’s always going to be some cases that draw (negative) attention.”
Original Source Article: Record Searchlight - Link
Friday, July 1, 2011
CAL FIRE Press Release: CAL FIRE Urges Firework Safety This Fourth of July
CAL FIRE Urges Firework Safety This Fourth of July
“Illegal fireworks pose a major danger to Californian’s safety,” said Acting State Fire Marshal Tonya Hoover. “We will not tolerate the use or sale of illegal fireworks here in California.”
Under California law, illegal fireworks include sky rockets, bottle rockets, roman candles, aerial shells, firecrackers and other miscellaneous types that explode, go up in the air, or move about the ground in an uncontrollable fashion. Those convicted could be fined up to $50,000 and sent to prison or jail for up to one year.
“If fireworks are used illegally or in an unsafe manner they pose a very serious threat to our communities," said Chief Ken Pimlott, director of CAL FIRE. "The results can be devastating and take critical resources away from other emergencies."
In 286 communities in the state, “safe and sane” fireworks are permitted. However, State fire officials want to remind those who choose to purchase legal fireworks this year to make sure they purchase only those with the “Safe and Sane” State Fire Marshal seal they are only used in the community where they are purchased. It is illegal to sell, transport, posses, or use any fireworks in areas where they are not allowed. Even “Safe and Sane” fireworks can be dangerous if used unsafely.
Fireworks Guidelines
- Residents and visitors should practice caution and safety with the following:
- Check that fireworks are allowed in the area of use
- Make sure the firework has the State Fire Marshal “safe and sane” seal
- Purchase only from legitimate organizations authorized to sell
- Have a bucket of water, sand or garden hose available at firing site
- Read all instructions before use
- Dispose of used fireworks in water
- Never alter, modify or enhance fireworks
- Make sure fireworks have proper clearance from flammable materials including dry grass and brush.
Remember that fireworks are not toys; they should always be used in a safe manner. CAL FIRE wants everyone to have a safe 4th of July holiday.
For more information about safe fireworks use, visit the CAL FIRE Web site at www.fire.ca.gov
CONTACT:
Daniel Berlant
(916) 651-FIRE (3473)
Julie Hutchinson
(951) 377-8380.
YNP: Two dead - Hikers swept over flooded bridge into Hetch Hetchy Reservoir
Two Hikers were swept over a bridge and into a reservoir while backpacking through Yosemite National Park.
The men died Wednesday when they were swept over a flooded bridge and into the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.
One of their bodies has been found. The other man is missing and presumed dead.
Park officials say the bridge where the group was crossing was open to the public but it was filled with water from rain and snow runoff.
Park officials say the bridge where the group was crossing was open to the public but it was filled with water from rain and snow runoff.
Victims: Both victims were doctors that worked in the Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital emergency room in Whittier. The two men were identified as Dr. Gregory Meyer, an emergency medical specialist who worked at the hospital since 1998; and Richard Fox, a physician's assistant in the emergency department, working at the hospital since 2003. They were part of a group that had been backpacking for several days through Yosemite National Park this was the fourth year that the group of five has taken the trip to Yosemite.
The other three also work at the hospital. One was Meyer's wife.
Park officials say there have been fatalities at the park this year, but this is the first time anyone has been swept away on or near the bridge where Wednesday's incident happened, the accident happened Wednesday around 8 a.m. Both men were in their 50s were part of a group of five hikers.
Park officials confirmed Meyer is presumed dead but they are still searching for his body. Fox's body has been recovered.
Park officials confirmed Meyer is presumed dead but they are still searching for his body. Fox's body has been recovered.
Illegal Online Internet Fireworks Sales Monitored By CAL FIRE
Special Cal Fire Enforcement Team Will Patrol The Internet
This Fourth of July Holiday pro active Cal Fire team will search for problem fireworks online sales before they cause real problems such as fires and injuries this holiday.
“It's against the law to sell fireworks on the internet, but we're constantly looking at sites like Craigslist,” Cal Fire Spokesman Daniel Berlant said.
Berlant says the people behind the ads usually leave a phone number or address, making it very easy to make the bust.
Every year, Cal Fire seizes 65,000 to 100,000 pounds of illegal fireworks.
This Fourth of July Holiday pro active Cal Fire team will search for problem fireworks online sales before they cause real problems such as fires and injuries this holiday.“It's against the law to sell fireworks on the internet, but we're constantly looking at sites like Craigslist,” Cal Fire Spokesman Daniel Berlant said.
Berlant says the people behind the ads usually leave a phone number or address, making it very easy to make the bust.
Every year, Cal Fire seizes 65,000 to 100,000 pounds of illegal fireworks.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
YNP: Yosemite National Park Prescribed Burn Scheduled
Prescribed Burn Scheduled in and Around Yosemite National ParkFirst Burn of Season is a Collaborative Effort with Stanislaus National
Forest
Where: Yosemite National Park Fire Managers are planning a prescribed fire in the
north western portion of the park near the Big Oak Flat Entrance Station on
Highway 120 (Big Oak Flat Road) The total prescribed burn area will include 500 acres.
The Hodgdon Prescribed Burn will include 389 acres in Yosemite National Park and 111 acres in the Stanislaus National Forest.
When: Wednesday, July 6, 2011. The ignition of the burn is dependent on weather conditions.
The prescribed area is beginning to dry out from a heavy winter snowpack and fuel moistures and other fire factors within the burn unit are reaching optimal levels to successfully burn the unit.
 |
| Yosemite National Park Prescribed Burn Map |
Who: The fire will be managed as an interagency effort, with the agencies sharing personnel and
equipment. It is estimated that the burn will take approximately three days to complete. Temperatures over the scheduled burn dates are predicted to be in the mid-70’s.
Smoke from the burn may be visible throughout the park, but may be more
evident in the northern portion of the park. The goal of this prescribed
burn is to reduce fire fuels near the park boundaries, Hodgdon Meadow
Campground, the Big Oak Flat Entrance Station, and the Hodgdon residential
area. This will be the first prescribed fire in this specific location,
however there is evidence of natural fire history by burn scars on mature
trees in the area.
For more information on this specific prescribed burn, or the fire program,
please visit: www.nps.gov/yose/parkmgmt/current_fire.htm.
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