Photo By Sgt. Andrew Cortez | A heavy fire equipment operator with the California Department of Forestry and Fire...... read more read more
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The California fire season is approaching. As the weather starts to get warmer, vegetation will start to dry and become easily flammable.
Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton has been taking steps to prevent its vast terrain and wildlife from catching on fire and spreading to communities on and off base.
“We have been creating firebreaks that are used to break up the dirt from the vegetation,” said Jeff Cunliffe-Owen, an assistant chief with the Camp Pendleton Fire Department. “In order for us to control wild land fires that usually happen on Camp Pendleton, we need to separate the two.”
The CPFD brought together firefighters from local departments and CAL FIRE for two weeks of heavy equipment interagency safety training, April 20 to May 1. The firefighters trained to use heavy equipment to cut firebreaks in preparation for this year’s fire season.
“For us at CAL FIRE it’s a great opportunity for us to do this training on Camp Pendleton,” said Marty Adams, a heavy equipment operator with CAL FIRE. “Before fire season starts we get a chance to use skills we don’t use often and polish them up.”
As part of the training, firefighters will cut approximately 60 miles of firebreaks. This will make a significant dent in the 165 miles CPD and Camp Pendleton’s Facilities Maintenance Division need cut each year.
“Camp Pendleton had a very slow fire season last year,” said Cunliffe-Owen. “There is a lot of new growth and old growth from last year that didn’t get burned, but we prepare every year for it to be a bad fire season.”
The Camp Pendleton fire department has also been training with CAL FIRE to map and use global positioning systems to locate firefighters in an emergency situation.
The interagency training has an additional benefit. If a fire were to ever spread off base, the Camp Pendleton firefighters have now had one more opportunity to train alongside and strengthen relationships with the men and women they will work with to protect the local community.
“We will be ready for this year’s fire season, especially with all this training we have been doing,” said Adams. “I’ve been doing this for 12 years and every year we train and refresh our skills to get ready.”
| Date Taken: | 04.30.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 04.30.2020 21:04 |
| Story ID: | 368951 |
| Location: | CAMP PENDLETON , CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 239 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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