Briceland Volunteer Fire Department

The Wolf and his crew entertaining the crowd.

A picture perfect sunset.

Engine 5436 and her crew recently returned home from a 14 day assignment near Orleans at the SRF Lighting Complex Fires. Assigned to protect homes in the Ishi Pishi and Somes Bar area, we partnered with Shelter Cove and Fortuna VFDs as well as Redwood Valley-Capella, Humboldt Bay and Arcata Fire Departments forming a Strike Team of five Type 3 Wildland Engines working together under the Cal OES mutual aid system.

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With hundreds of lightning strikes recently in the area, mostly to east of Briceland, local fire agencies responded to dozens of reported fires over the last few days. Fortunately there were significant amounts of rain associated with these thunderstorms and many of the fires did not get a chance to grow much before they were put out. However, there were several that did grow in size and required extended efforts to contain. Water Tender 5466, Engines 5436 and 5446, as well as BVFD command staff assisted on multiple fires.

Just before 6 AM this Wednesday (8/9) BVFD responded to a structure fire adjacent to Briceland Thorne Rd, 2 miles west of Redway. With mutual aid assistance from Redway and Garberville VFDs, as well as from CalFire, the fire was quickly knocked down. Ignition of the surrounding unmaintained vegetation was prevented and, although the home sustained major interior damage, the fire did not reach the exterior of the building. After hours of work to secure that all embers had been put out completely, our crew returned to station to recoup our equipment. Just before 7PM we were called to 2nd fire, originally reported as a another structure fire, located on Alapok Ln, not a quarter mile from the mornings fire. It turned out to be a vegetation fire in grass and brush. Fortunately, this fire was also stopped quickly, contained at less than a quarter of an acre. BVFD is very grateful for the help from our partners Redway Fire and Garberville Fire. Recent multi-departmental trainings in both structural and wildland fire, as well as medical first aid, has helped to provide an increased cohesion in our emergency responses.