CAL FIRE crews from San Luis Obispo, Nacimiento, Fresno, and Tulare began a three-day training course at Camp Roberts Wednesday morning using the "fighting fire with fire" technique.
The C234 training course is a requirement for captains and engineers to complete within their first two years.
"The importance of doing this training is that we do it in the springtime," said Nacimiento Fire Center Battalion Chief Louis Ermigarat. "It kind of gets everybody kind of knocking the rust off and getting going at a slower pace rather than just getting out there and doing it."
On top of learning techniques on how to tackle fires with differing weather patterns like wind change, fire captains are also learning how to communicate with other captains across the West Coast, from Oregon all the way down to Mexico, when large fires occur and multiple agencies are required to work together.
“Some of these guys have never met each other before," Ermigarat said. "So to come together and then you go down south and then you see each other again like, 'Hey, I remember you from class,' and you're able to come up with a plan and help.”
“We're definitely learning as students how to read the wind and the weather a lot better while we are putting fire on the ground, how they use that weather to shift the fire to the way that we want it to go," said Fresno Fire Captain Casey Hutchings. "As we get more winds and the weather gets drier and our fuels are getting drier, we are having to switch our techniques on how to battle some of these fires.”
Camp Roberts sits on 42,000 acres of land. CAL FIRE is using roughly 500 acres of it for their three-day training.
In addition to the training, Chief Ermigarat says the burns help with fuel reduction when fires spark during base training. The last day of prescribed burn training is Friday.
