Cal Fire comes together for annual fire attack drill ahead of the fire season
MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. (KION) - Cal Fire hosted their annual extended attack drill this morning with over one hundred fire personnel across the Golden State.
With fire season starting a month early on the central coast, fire personnel say drills like these are essential to prepare for a real-life wildfire disaster.
"This gives us an opportunity to come together to simulate a large-scale incident to ensure that all of our resources are currently in play," Cal Fire Assistant Chief Keith Tsudama.
The extended attack drill is intended to simulate a real-life large-scale wildfire for trainees.
"We always want to be fire-ready and we want to make sure that responses, as well as ordering and all the background logistics, are seamless," Monterey Command Center Fire Captain Jody Gear said.
Over 120 fire personnel worked on a simulated 500-acre fire in Aromas, whether attacking, assigning, or releasing information to the public.
"They know the importance of the media outlets and utilizing them to get the information out, the critical needs and timelines that come with all the things these information officers do," Cal Fire Public Information Officer Curtis Rhodes said.
Inside the command center, strategy is everything.
"It's not just that we're sending resources, we're augmenting responses, we're thinking ahead, we're getting resources that. Maybe the IC [Incident Commander] hasn't thought of, we're planning 15 steps ahead so that our firefighters can do their job on the ground," Gear said.
In its fifth year, the drill expanded with agencies from Santa Clara, San Luis Obispo, and Fresno joining forces.
"We're all affected on incidents like this. And so bringing those partners in so we know each other now for again, like I said, when the emergency happens, we're not building those relationships," Tsudama said.
Since the drill started five years ago, it has been held in Monterey.
Next year, they plan to have the drill somewhere in Northern California.
