Hosts for fire training sessions encouraged to volunteer their property

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HUMBOLDT COUNTY, Calif. (KIEM)-With fire season in full swing, Humboldt Bay Fire is keeping their skills sharp.

It may be just training but it is executed as if it was the real deal.

“We are using our in service units to practice rural water supply operations in the structure fire settings,” said Humboldt Bay Fire’s Battalion Chief Nick Launius.

He says the settings may not be real, but the practice will serve as real world experience.

“What that looks like we do have a lot of rural areas in our jurisdictions, areas that are not serviced by fire hydrants or water systems,” said he said.

Let alone private water systems, and according to Launius, homeowners are mandated to install fire tanks that hold at least two thousand-five hundred gallons of water.

“But when you’re talking in the context of sometimes needing to use 250-gallons a minute, you can see that, that water can quickly go away very, very quickly,” he said.

Amy Conlin also works for Humboldt Bay fire, she is their Community Risk Reduction Specialist.

“So that water tender is used to shuffle water from hydrants from water access a fire ground like this that is away from hydrant access,” she said.

Conlin says, their battalion routinely trains throughout the year.

“The training was brought on by the fire at Ole Hanson Road, just the access issues to the property, the water supplies issues there,” she said.

Every second is critical when it comes to response time.

“We were given access by a homeowner to their property to run a drill on,” Conlin said.

“Practicing things like rural hitch, to get the water from the tenders and the draft tanks to the scene of the fire.”

Conlin urges everyone to do their part by being mindful of safety precaution measures while outdoors.

“90% of fires happen in wild-land are human caused,” she said. “So the chains hanging from truck causing sparks on the road, the cigarette butts out the window, we just want people to be vigilant.” she said.

Conlin says anyone who owns property with a challenging terrain leading to their home, who will allow for a fire scenario to take place on their property can contact Humboldt Fire by clicking here.