Cal Fire Family Day

 

We were lucky enough to attend a Cal Fire Family Day recently. While this event was not a public event there are many local fire departments that offer tours. The event was held at the Cal Fire Academy in Ione, CA. We were treated to a whole host of demonstrations as well as a great lunch and lots of extreamly helpful Cal Fire employees.

Our tour started with a walk down "main street". Here was the heart of the hands on training that all of the firefighters at the academy must complete. There was a mock roof set up for roof venting exercises. A garage type structure that they will start fires in then give lectures on how the fire progresses with the cadets inside.  They gave demonstrations on a 5 story building for emergency ladder escapes and repelling. The creepiest building had to be the "haunted house" which was 2 story structure that they will fill with smoke to the point of zero visibility. The cadets must exit a maze or debris and wiring which resembles a house that the roof has collapsed. Their only time limit is their air supply.  There was a vehicle airbag deployment excise in which Elmo was blown 50 feet in the air. Now being a former mechanic and known vehicle crasher the violent power of an airbag is nothing new to me. There were however many people who had never witnessed an airbag deployment. I'm pretty certain that a few folks moved their seats back after having witnessed what an airbag is capable of.

Used for repelling and ladder drills

After a fantastic lunch there was a law enforcement demonstration. This came as a surprise as I was unaware that Cal Fire had Peace Officers. There are roughly 200 Cal Fire Law Enforcement Officers statewide that mostly investigate wildfires in the state. These men and women not only carry the responsibility of being Peace Officers but must also carry full fire and medic gear in there vehicles with them. They must be able to serve on fire lines as well as serve warrants. Pretty impressive range of duties. The officers complete the same training that CHP or your local Sheriff complete. The academy also has there very own gun range on site. They had most of the equipment used by the LEO's on display for people to try on and had a patrol vehicle open as well.

Shannon is riot ready

Back draft.  Most of us have seen the movie or been to Universal Studios and gone on the ride. We were lucky enough to see an actual one in full force. This was enhanced by the step by step explanations of what was occurring by the instructors. The demonstration is used to teach firefighters the signs and symptoms of a back draft. This teaching aid only became available 2 years ago and prior to that the fire cadets were shown video on what it looks like. This was a very neat demonstration however the lessons learned for the firemen are very real. These occur very rarely in real life but are extreamly dangerous to personnel when the do occur. I also learned the smoke is a combustible under the right conditions. They started the outside of the container on fire with just the contact from a flare.

While it's a little tough to see that is a fireball shooting out of the container

The final demonstration was rides in the fire trucks. Who doesn't want to ride in a fire truck? The look on my daughters face was priceless. If a face can say "holy crap i'm riding in a fire truck" it did. It was again staffed by a very nice instructor who actually seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Thank You again to my sister whom we were guests of and the Cal Fire Academy. All of the instructors and employees were extreamly helpful and I would say everyone learned something today. There was a genuine enthusiasm that was very evident and I'm not quite sure who enjoyed themselves more the kids or the adults. Great Job Cal Fire!

Cal Fire Facts

• Responsible for 31 million acres 
• On average repsond to 5,600 wildfires and 350,000 non wildfire emergencies a year
•  48 various aircraft used
• 4,300 inmates, wards or CCC are used annually