This Sunday, June 9th 2024 was another great success in skill sharing and camaraderie at the Southern Humboldt Community Park with our fire service community! The Wailaki word Lachinde (meaning “Hazel”) was used as the incident name for this training to honor the work of local indigenous peoples to restore cultural burning to our landscape. It was truly a huge undertaking with participation and collaboration from many volunteer fire departments, CalFire as well as prescribed fire and cultural fire practitioners.

The Wildlands Readiness Drill completes the 2nd weekend of training and fulfills the NWCG requirements for our Academy trainees to reach FFT2, a nationally recognized qualification. It also serves as the annual refresher for seasoned fire service members to renew their certification.

Engines and fire service members from Garbervile Fire, Miranda Fire, Salmon Creek Fire Protection District, Redway Fire Protection District, Shelter Cove Fire Department, Whale Gulch VFC, Telegraph Ridge Volunteer Fire, Fruitland Ridge VFD, Palo Verde VFC, Honeydew VFC, and Petrolia Fire joined Briceland VFD together with members of the Wailaki Cultural Burn Crew and the Humboldt County Prescribed Burn Association.

Special thanks to CalFire HUU and the crew of ‘copter 901 that gave us a close up view of their aircraft as well as to sponsors providing funding to make this possible; the California State Coastal Conservancy, Humboldt County Prescribed Burn Association, Humboldt Co. Resources Conservation District and the Humboldt Co. Fire Instructors Association. Also thanks to Serenity Wood and Shelter Cove 5100 for the photos!

Captain Damien Roomets led the recent S-212 Chainsaw training at Briceland Station, a course that provides basic knowledge of Chainsaw operation, safety and use in wildland fire situations in accordance with NWCG guidelines. After completing the classroom training, firefighters will have the opportunity to prove their proficiency in the field and receive a Faller 3 certification, which is recognized nationwide in the fire service.

With financial assistance from the USDA Community Wildfire Defense Grant awarded to Briceland Fire last year, along with some favorable weather this spring, our Fuels Reduction Crew has been hard at work recently in the China Creek and Blue Slide neighborhoods. We’re creating a shaded fuel break that doubles as a escape route or access for emergency response in case of wildfire and to date we’ve cleared roadside brush and limbed up trees for approximately 3 miles, over thirty acres! There’s more to do so still, so you may see us with our type 6 fire engine and chipper if you’re in the area. Some of the roadway is narrow, so traffic may be impacted while we move through certain areas. Thank you for your patience and support!