On May 5th, 6th and 8th, crews from Antelope, Devil’s Garden and Intermountain Conservation Camps participated in their fire preparedness exercises. Typically, this exercise is held each year, the first week of May, at Ishi Conservation Camp, located outside of Red Bluff.
The purpose of the exercise is to test the fire crew’s readiness for the upcoming fire season; inspecting their crew buses, fire tools and personal protective equipment; checking the crew’s ability to hike, cut handline and deploy fire shelters; and testing crewmember’s knowledge of fire firefighting tactics and safety.
This year, due to Covid-19, each camp held their own preparedness exercise.
Cal-Fire currently operates 39 Conservation Camps statewide that house more than 4,000 inmates. The crews are available year-round and they respond to fires throughout the state. The Lassen-Modoc Unit is fortunate to have three conservation camps that can staff fourteen 17-man crews.
According to the agency inmate fire crews are a valuable resource in the work they do both in conservation and fire suppression.
During 2019, crews in the Lassen-Modoc Unit provided the local communities with 64,424 hours of project and conservation work.
State agencies benefited from 35,248 hours and federal agencies – 47,173 hours. The fire season of 2019 saw crews logging over 140,440 hours of fire suppression.
