Briceland Volunteer Fire Department

Briceland Fire would like to thank the Southern Humboldt Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Center and hosts The Benbow Historic Inn, plus all the community members who attended the 2nd annual Fireman’s Ball, a fundraiser for local volunteer fire departments held this Friday, May 12. Members of our department attended and also helped entertain musically the finely dressed attendees. Our dept. was lucky enough to win the gran prize, a $3000 donation!

California’s 2nd district representative Jared Huffman paid a visit to the Briceland station this afternoon to meet members of the department and discuss various fire related topics. Briceland VFD recently secured a $205,000 federal grant to address overgrown and hazardous conditions along the China Creek and Blue Slide Road system, just one of three major infusions of federal money addressing the risks of wildfire in southern Humboldt. The other two projects are for Shelter Cove VFD to reduce fuels in their district, and the Mattole Restoration Council for treating vegetation between Salmon Creek and the Kings Range Conservation Area. Read more of the details here with KymKemp or the Eureka Times-Standard

This March, Briceland Fire hosted a multi-day medical first aid training for over 60 participants, qualifying many new firefighters and first responders. Our new fire station offers ample space and facilities to gather and is centrally located for volunteers from all across southern Humboldt county.

With a ribbon-cutting ceremony this Tuesday afternoon, March 21st 2023, BVFD officially opened our new fire station. A small gathering of community members sheltered from the showers outside in the spacious garage with attendees including the family of former Briceland Chief Tim Olsen, former Chief Gerald Myers, the BVFD board, our current fire crew, and the builders and contractors who helped make this dream come true. The planning, financing and completion of this building was a monumental project that was decades in the making.

In the early summer Briceland Fire plans to celebrate with an open house for the public. There are still many details to be finished at our new station, but we are grateful to have the basic facilities ready for our crew and equipment as well as for hosting training events for first responders from all across Southern Humboldt county. If you would like to contribute to the final completion of the Tim Olsen Memorial Fire Station, please consider purchasing a brick for our patio with this “BricksRUs” link.

Nancy was involved in firefighting since the early ‘70s. Throughout her life she contributed approximately 49 years of service to her community as a fire fighter. In addition to direct firefighting she wore many hats including medical aid, communications, grant writing, training, and coordinating. She was involved in starting the Whale Gulch Volunteer Fire Company, was the chief for many years and an active member until the last few years of her life. Nancy was often first on scene so she turned her Toyota 4-Runner into a mini fire engine; equipped with medical equipment, a back board, oxygen, as well as a 50 gallon water tank, a pump, and a few hundred feet of fire hose. She was always prepared for an emergency. She was a first responder, an EMT, and was a CPR instructor through the Garberville Hospital.

 

Briceland Volunteer Fire recently helped organize a multi-agency effort, dubbed “Operation Hay Drop” to bring food to cattle that were in danger of starving due to the extraordinary amounts of higher elevation snowfall in our area. Cal OES, CalFire HUU, CalGuard and the Humboldt Sheriffs dept. coordinated with local first responders and ranchers to make this mission possible. The story was picked up by several nationwide media sources including this article in the SF Chronicle.

Mutual Aid like this brings different agencies together in times of emergency, with each department bringing their own expertise, knowledge and resources to get the job done together.

You can see for yourself the CalGuard hay drop from their aircraft.

Residents of Elk Ridge and Seely Creek are currently receiving notification letters from Humboldt County Planning and Building Department informing them of new address assignments, old address deletions, and new road names in some instances.

This project was initiated by Briceland Fire, with a generous grant from the California Fire Foundation in 2021, to improve emergency response by eliminating sources of confusion for responders when they navigate to emergency calls on our rural roads. Address numbers will now correspond to mileage from the beginning of the road. In some instances conflicting road names are also being corrected and new road names are being assigned. Briceland Fire has purchased road name signs that have been/are being installed. These corrections of road names and sequential addressing help responders gain a sense of the location of the emergency based purely on the address number, and this will reduce response times for emergency services.

Another round of letters from the County correcting addresses will take place for the Blue Slide Creek and Crooked Prairie road networks soon, as well as corrections for Miller Creek Road, Shop Road, and James Creek/Barley Hill Road after that.

Address numbers should be posted at the location your driveway leaves the named roadway. You can post additional signs, if needed, at forks on your driveway and/or at the residence. Signs should be able to be easily seen, even at night.

Briceland Volunteer Fire Department has placed a bulk order for 6″x18″x.06″ aluminum signs with reflective vinyl coating in green and 4″ white numbers. These will be available, for $15 each, by the end of February at the fire station and at special events. Your specific address numbers will be added when you pick them up.

Thank you to everyone for assisting during this process.