*BLUE ALERT* CHP Shooting Suspects

***** UPDATE******* ON MAY 6, 2012, AT APPROXIMATELY 2312 HOURS, A CHP OFFICER WAS ASSAULTED WITH A FIREARM AND SUSTAINED INJURIES. 
 THE FIRST SUSPECT IS AN UNKNOWN HISPANIC MALE, IN HIS 20'S AND HE WAS LAST SEEN WEARING A WHITE COWBOY HAT WITH A BUTTON UP SHIRT.
 THE SUSPECT WAS LAST SEEN DRIVING A DARK BLUE CHEVROLET OR GMC YUKON TYPE VEHICLE WITH AN UNKNOWN LICENSE PLATE.THE MODEL YEAR IS POSSIBLY A 2000'S.
 OTHER VEHICLE INFORMATION INCLUDES: THE REAR CARGO WINDOW WAS SHOT OUT AND THE VEHICLE HAS 24 INCH RIMS WITH LOW PROFILE TIRES.
 THE SECOND SUSPECT IS AN UNKNOWN HISPANIC MALE, IN HIS 20'S, AND HE WAS LAST SEEN WEARING A LIGHT COLORED TANK TOP.
 TAKE CAUTION WHEN APPROACHING THIS VEHICLE.THE POSSIBLE WEAPON USED IN THIS ASSAULT WAS A 9MM AUTOMATIC HANDGUN, POSSIBLY A MAC 10  TYPE.
 THE SUSPECTS ARE WANTED FOR THE ATTEMPTED MURDER OF A PEACE OFFICER. IF SEEN CONTACT KERN COUNTY SHERRIF'S DEPARTMENT AT (661) 861-3110. 


Statewide search is on for suspects involved in the shooting of a CHP officer in Kern County late Sunday night.

The shooting happened on State Route 178 in Kern County at 10:45 Sunday night. The officer was on the side of the west bound lanes using radar to monitor traffic when an SUV passed him also heading westbound.

The SUV then made an illegal U-turn and re-entered the westbound lanes traveling in the wrong direction toward the officer.

As the SUV got closer, the left rear passenger fired multiple shots at the officer hitting him in the left hand and chest. The officer was able to return fire striking but not stopping the SUV.

The officer was taken to the hospital with non life-threatening injuries

*****BLUE ALERT***** 
THE FIRST SUSPECT IS AN UNKNOWN HISPANIC MALE, IN HIS 20'S AND HE WAS LAST SEEN WEARING A WHITE COWBOY HAT WITH A BUTTON UP SHIRT.

 THE SUSPECT WAS LAST SEEN DRIVING A DARK BLUE CHEVROLET OR GMC YUKON TYPE VEHICLE WITH AN UNKNOWN LICENSE PLATE. THE MODEL YEAR IS POSSIBLY A 2000'S. OTHER VEHICLE INFORMATION INCLUDES: THE REAR CARGO WINDOW WAS SHOT OUT AND THE VEHICLE HAS 24 INCH RIMS WITH LOW PROFILE TIRES.

 THE SECOND SUSPECT IS AN UNKNOWN HISPANIC MALE, IN HIS 20'S, AND HE WAS LAST SEEN WEARING A LIGHT COLORED TANK TOP. TAKE CAUTION WHEN APPROACHING THIS VEHICLE.

 THE POSSIBLE WEAPON USED IN THIS ASSAULT WAS A 9MM AUTOMATIC HANDGUN, POSSIBLY A MAC 10 TYPE.

 IF SEEN CONTACT KERN COUNTY SHERRIF'S DEPARTMENT AT (661) 861-3110.

Area: STATEWIDE

Affected Counties or parts of: Yuba, San Diego, Marin, Trinity, Mendocino, Riverside, Calaveras, Madera, Sonoma, San Francisco, Shasta, Sacramento, Inyo, Monterey, Butte, Fresno, Sutter, San Benito, Lake, Santa Clara, Contra Costa, Lassen, El Dorado, Alpine, Tuolumne, Tulare, Glenn, San Bernardino, Imperial, Modoc, Plumas, Santa Cruz, Yolo, Mono, Del Norte, Napa, Amador, Ventura, San Luis Obispo, San Joaquin, Humboldt, Mariposa, Merced, Santa Barbara, Solano, Kings, Colusa, Orange, Tehama, Alameda, Nevada, Sierra, Stanislaus, San Mateo, Placer, Siskiyou, Kern, Los Angeles

Sent: 2012-05-07T09:02:49-07:00

Original Sender: ENTA

California Fire News 2012 

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CA-LNU: Wilbur Hot Springs resort 10 acres, 100%

Fire destroys cabin, burns wildland at Wilbur Hot Springs
SUNDAY, 06 MAY 2012 19:57 ELIZABETH LARSON


LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A fire at a resort destroyed a guest’s cabin and burned close to 10 acres of vegetation on Sunday afternoon.

The fire was reported at the Wilbur Hot Springs resort, located at Wilbur Springs near Bear Creek, which is close to the Lake and Colusa County border. (Wilbur Springs is a very small community. It is just north of the junction of Hwy 16 and 20 in Colusa County. The fire was originally dispatched as at the Wilbur Springs Resort. The Calfire Station is at that Hwy junction)

Northshore Fire Deputy Chief Pat Brown said firefighters from his agency were dispatched to the fire at 2:20 p.m. Sunday.

Brown said Northshore Fire and the Williams Fire Department, which have a mutual aid agreement, were the first agencies to respond.

Northshore Fire initially sent a water tender and an engine, Brown said. When firefighters got to the scene, more resources were requested.

He said Northshore Fire sent another engine, with one coming from Kelseyville as well.

Cal Fire, Colusa County and city fire departments, and Capay Valley also sent firefighters and equipment, Brown said.

Cal Fire’s Copter 104 worked the fire from the air, he said.

Brown said the fire burned one cabin, threatened two others, and went up a steep hillside, burning heavy brush.

The fire was contained Sunday night, with radio reports indicating firefighters were being released from the scene at around 7 p.m. and after.

Brown said Cal Fire had two engines and two handcrews remaining on scene and mopping up the fire area overnight.

Two more Cal Fire engines were scheduled to come in Monday morning for mop up, and Brown said Cal Fire also planned to check the fire area from the air on Monday.

The fire’s cause remained under investigation Sunday night, but Brown said investigators were leaning toward a finding that involved a possible electrical issue in the burned cabin.

One injury – a heat related issue – was reported and handled at the scene, Brown said.
Source: www.lakeconews.com - Link
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LACoFD: SHARK ENCOUNTER – CATALINA ISLAND

SHARK ENCOUNTER – CATALINA ISLAND



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 Contact: LACoFD Public Affairs (323) 881-2413


Los Angeles – May 6, 2012 – This morning, a 15 year old female paddlboarder had an encounter with a shark off the coast of Catalina Island approximately 200 yards from shore. She was was not injured in the incident; however, the paddleboard was biten several times. She was with a group of other paddleboarders approximetely one mile from the Avalon area in a remote area of the island.

After this incident, immediate notifications began to the public including camps, beach rentals, yacht clubs, and waterfront businesses on Catalina Island. Swimmers, divers, and small craft operators are advised to use extreme caution in the water around Catalina Island.

Although this is an extremely rare occurance, the Los Angeles County Fire Department Lifeguard Rescue Boat crews on Catalina Island have been and will continue to maintain constant patrols throughout the area and have reported nothing has been seen up to this point in time.

# # #
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FIRE WEATHER WATCH: MONDAY - INYO, SAN BERNARDINO

NORTH WINDS COULD INCREASE ON MONDAY.

 FIRE WEATHER WATCH FOR STRONG WINDS AND LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITY


RELATIVE HUMIDITIES ARE EXPECTED TO BE VERY LOW AND FIRE DANGER IS HIGH

SO IF THE STRONGER WINDS OCCUR CRITICAL FIRE WEATHER CONDITIONS WOULD RESULT.
 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN LAS VEGAS HAS ISSUED A FIRE WEATHER WATCH FOR STRONG WINDS AND LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITY...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM LATE MONDAY MORNING THROUGH MONDAY EVENING.

 AFFECTED AREA:
ARIZONA FIRE: WEATHER ZONE 101 LAKE MEAD NRA/COLORADO RIVER-AZ SIDE.
CALIFORNIA: FIRE WEATHER ZONE 229 LOWER COLORADO RIVER VALLEY.
NEVADA: FIRE WEATHER ZONE 466 LAKE MEAD NRA/COLORADO RIVER-NV SIDE.

 TIMING: THE BEST CHANCES FOR STRONG WINDS AND VERY LOW HUMIDITY WILL BE FROM LATE MONDAY MORNING THROUGH EARLY MONDAY EVENING.

WIND: NORTH WINDS COULD INCREASE TO 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS AROUND 40 MPH LATE MONDAY MORNING AND PERSIST INTO EARLY EVENING BEFORE DECREASING.

HUMIDITY: MINIMUMS OF 5 TO 10 PERCENT IN THE AFTERNOON.

IMPACTS: THE COMBINATION OF GUSTY WINDS AND VERY LOW HUMIDITY WOULD PRODUCE CRITICAL FIRE WEATHER CONDITIONS.

 PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS:  A FIRE WEATHER WATCH MEANS THAT CRITICAL FIRE WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE POSSIBLE. LISTEN FOR LATER FORECASTS AND POSSIBLE RED FLAG WARNINGS.


AREA: LAKE MEAD NRA/COLORADO RIVER-AZ SIDE-LOWER COLORADO RIVER VALLEY-LAKE MEAD NRA/COLORADO RIVER-NV SIDE-

AFFECTED CALIFORNIA COUNTIES: INYO, SAN BERNARDINO

SENT: 2012-05-06T02:37:53-07:00

California Fire News 2011 Tweet - Follow @CalFireNews

CFPD Looking to end CAL FIRE relationship

Half Moon Bay - CalFire contract is extended 1 year by default

CalFire may not continue beyond 6/30/2013.  The backstory is still quiet. 

Split board looks beyond CalFire

Majority ignores grand jury recommendations

Coastside Fire District, Half Moon Bay

By a 3-2 vote, the Coastside Fire Protection District board of directors last week hired new consultants in a continuing effort to determine the feasibility of a stand-alone department, one that would be run without CalFire management. In so doing, the board majority effectively ignored strong warnings contained in a San Mateo County grand jury report issued the very same day.

Meanwhile, the board majority declined to sign a new contract with CalFire, and the state fire agency exercised its option to extend the contract one year — to June 30, 2013. At that time the state agency would hand over operations to some other organization.

Board President Doug Mackintosh and board members Mike Alifano and Gary Riddell carried the day, assigning a $48,000 consultant team to investigate the costs and operational questions necessary to reconstitute a locally managed department. The consultants include a retired San Ramon firefighter who will charge the district $225 an hour for his expertise and Susan George, recently retired town manager of Woodside, who will charge $150 an hour.

Citing ongoing frustration from working with a large state bureaucracy, Mackintosh said after the meeting that the Coastside would see better fire protection and long-term savings if it went back to local staffing. He declined to point out any specific problems with the services provided by CalFire.

“In some cases it seems like everything is pulling teeth,” he said, “The majority of the board feels that we need to move someplace else for service.”

The other two board members say there is absolutely no reason why the district should dump CalFire. Director Gary Burke pointed out the state fire agency has not been embroiled in any lawsuits or complaints over four years on the Coastside.

That is in contrast to the stand-alone Half Moon Bay Fire Protection District, which paid more than $1.2 million in settlements and legal costs between 2000 and 2006. That was a dark period for the two Coastside fire districts. Infighting led to lawsuits and highly publicized scraps between management and labor. Eventually, a series of interim chiefs recommended a newly combined district contract with CalFire for management, and the Coastside Fire Protection District did just that in 2008. Since then, the district has won praise in a separate grand jury report, and the board has boasted of saving taxpayers money by virtue of CalFire’s salary scale and work schedule.

But the board majority has pointed to what it thinks are deficiencies in the deal. Alifano has said the district needs the protection of an independent contract manager and that without one he can’t be certain the state agency is delivering on its promises. In addition, board members claim CalFire isn’t doing all it could with training and that some firefighters are unfamiliar with local neighborhoods.

Burke was instrumental in setting up the CalFire contract and is unmoved by the majority’s complaints.

“This is an attempt to return the district to the cronyism that we had before CalFire,” he said. “The action taken by the board was dangerous, irresponsible and without justification.”

“We’re in uncharted territory here … and there’s so many unknowns,” said CalFire unit Chief John Ferreira who supervises Coastside firefighters. “It’s never happened that a contract has expired and the contracting body expects us to vacate.”

In a letter sent before the board meeting, CalFire officials announced they saw no other option but to enact an emergency clause in their contract to extend the current terms for one year in order to guarantee that the coast kept a capable firefighting force. That means the district could end its relationship with the state agency no earlier than 2013, and it also gives CalFire time to redeploy its personnel on the coast.

Extending the contract for another year made sense, Mackintosh said, because it gives the district time to work out a transition.

“You don’t just do these things and jump from one service to another without some work done, unless you’re stupid,” he said.

The most recent grand jury report claimed that much of the criticism of CalFire was “unfounded, outdated or of relatively minor significance.” It pointed out that Mackintosh himself was once a plaintiff against the district and claimed that much of the discord over district management through the years was the result of squabbling unions.

In an interview last week, Mackintosh dismissed the grand jury report because it wasn’t prepared by firefighting professionals.

Sources: http://fixpacifica.blogspot.com/2012/05/half-moon-bay-calfire-contract-is.html
http://www.hmbreview.com/news/split-board-looks-beyond-calfire/article_f17a518a-9549-11e1-bf36-001a4bcf887a.html

California Fire News 2011 

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Morgan hill to contract with CAL FIRE

 Contract could save $800K per year

In less than a year the city of Morgan Hill hopes to sign with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection as its new fire and emergency medical services provider, in hopes of saving local taxpayers about $800,000 per year.
The city council voted unanimously Wednesday to direct City Hall staff to draw up a contract with the department known as Calfire.
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Sacramento cops, firefighters face layoffs unless they give more to pensions

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento's police officers and firefighters have been presented with a stark choice: They can contribute more toward their pensions, or watch nearly 100 of their comrades lose their jobs.

In a budget proposal considered among the most draconian the city has faced, City Manager John Shirey on Thursday recommended laying off 62 firefighters and 34 police officers to address a $15.7 million deficit for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Another 10 Police Department employees also would lose their jobs under the proposal.

Those layoffs could be avoided, Shirey said, if public safety workers agree to pick up the entirety of the employee share of their CalPERS contributions.

Full Story: Link
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RRU: Demotion For Gesture While Driving

Calif. firefighter demoted for traffic cam hijinks
Driver took hands off steering wheel, flashed 2 thumbs up as fire engine with lights and siren on sped through red light

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A Cal Fire employee based in Riverside County is challenging a demotion for taking his hands off the steering wheel and flashing two thumbs up to a traffic-enforcement camera as his fire engine, with its emergency lights and siren on, sped through a red light at a Corona intersection.

Patrick O'Donoghue appeared at a state personnel board hearing Monday and Tuesday in Rancho Cucamonga, hoping to reverse his demotion from engineer to firefighter. The administrative law judge has 90 days to render a decision, which the personnel board can reject or modify, Cal Fire staff services analyst Kim Spire wrote in an email. O'Donoghue could then appeal the board's decision to Superior Court.

The incident occurred in November 2010. O'Donoghue was based at Station 38 in Rubidoux but on that day was assigned to Station 15 in Corona, Cal Fire spokeswoman Janet Upton said.

O'Donoghue's attorney, David J. Givot, said O'Donoghue acknowledges using poor judgment with his gesture and going through the red light around 60 mph when Cal Fire policy states he should have been driving at 5 mph.

Givot said he argued during the hearing, however, that the punishment was excessive.

"While he didn't comply with Cal Fire's policy with regard to speed of travel through an intersection, his actions didn't put anyone directly in danger," Givot said in a phone interview. "There were two vehicles clearly stopped."

An excerpt from its driver's policy provided by Cal Fire states: "The safety of the general public must take precedence in all cases over the response speed of the emergency vehicle. The law requires that the driver of an authorized emergency vehicle which is responding to an emergency use good judgment. It does not relieve the driver from the duty to drive with due regard for the safety of all persons using the highway, nor does it protect the driver from the consequences of an arbitrary and careless exercise of exemption privileges…"

California Fire News 2011 

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CZU: Vegetation Fire in Corralitos 1 acre, 100%

 CAL FIRE/Santa Cruz County Fire Dept.
Vegetation Fire in Corralitos

CONTACT: Jonathan Cox
Fire Captain
(650) 245-1727
RELEASE 
    DATE: April 28, 2012



Corralitos – At approximately 2:41 pm this afternoon, CAL FIRE/Santa Cruz County Fire
Department and neighboring agencies responded to a vegetation fire in the Eureka Canyon area of Corralitos.


The fire burned one acre of dense vegetation in extremely steep terrain and was controlled by
6:33 pm. An unattended control burn on private property with inadequate clearance caused the
fire.


68 firefighters from agencies throughout the region worked cooperatively to extinguish the fire.


This included CAL FIRE San Mateo-Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County Fire Department Company
41-Corralitos, Santa Cruz County Fire Department Company 36-Loma Prieta, Aptos-La Selva
Fire District, Watsonville Fire Department, Central Fire District and CAL FIRE San BenitoMonterey.


CAL FIRE reminds everyone of the dangers associated with open burning, especially as
conditions become warmer and drier. Open burning will close on April 30, 2012 in all State
Responsibility Areas of Santa Cruz County. Failure to follow burning regulations can result in
citation and liability of complete suppression response.

California Fire News 2012 Off to the races?

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CAL FIRE CZU: Close of Open Burn Season

CAL FIRE Continues Open Burning on Limited Basis in Santa Cruz County, San Mateo County


Felton - CAL FIRE in conjunction with the Monterey Bay Unified Air Pollution Control District
announces the Close of the Open Burn Season within the State Responsibility Areas of Santa Cruz
County on April 30, 2012.

Hazard reduction burning will be allowed after the 30th but only if burn piles are kept within posted
guidelines and require a Hazard Reduction Permit from the regional Air Pollution Control District. It is
expected that a Burn Ban will be imposed soon after the 30th as fire conditions warrant or when Fire
Season is declared for the summer. At that point, burning with the exception of campfires, will require a
special permit.

Posted guidelines for small debris piles are published at www.santacruzcountyfire.org. It is your
responsibility to follow all of the burn regulations and guidelines posted on that page. Failure to follow
burning regulations can result in citation and liability of complete suppression costs.
For updated burn day status information in Santa Cruz County contact Monterey Bay Unified Air
Pollution Control at 1-800-225-2876. In San Mateo County contact Bay Area Air Quality Management
District at 1-800-792-0787.

With the exception of campfires all other burning operations in the State Responsibility Areas of San
Mateo and Santa Cruz Counties related to Agriculture, land management, fire training, and other
industrial-type burning may proceed if a CAL FIRE official inspects the burn site and issues a special
permit. Check with your local Fire Department prior to burning to determine whether a permit is
required. CAL FIRE reminds everyone that it is their individual responsibility to use fire safely and to
prevent fires that destroy lives, property and our wildland. Be Fire Safe!

Anyone with questions about this declaration is urged to contact the nearest CAL FIRE facility.


CAL FIRE NEWS RELEASE 2012 California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection

California Fire News 2012 

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