And they all would stay instead of jump to local government departments. We keep new folks again instead of reinforcing training on those we have. Think how much reading we could give to those already in the fold. Much better trained, and a slower ste to the next level. And you are there to take pride as they pin on their FAE badge or FC badge.
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We moved to Simi Valley in 1977 - just after they opened the 118 freeway. We had looked at dozens of homes and potential building sites prior to buying in Simi. A friend was helping find a house/lot. He was a local general contractor and structural engineer. We were shocked at the building locations and existing homes built in dead end canyons and the sides of indefensible hills. We chose to give up those views & solitude to build a home that would survive a fire. It looks to me that not much changed after 1977 as far a control/choices of building with respect to vegetation fires and home roofs and exteriors. As others have said - the problems were identified over half a century ago but not much smart was done about them.
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one comment i’ll add is that there’s a long long list of folks who want to work for cal fire, every hiring thread on this site and others are packed full of people who have category 2 and would be happy even with a hand crew job, and there’s also a bunch of folks who are cat 1’s who want to get picked up
imo the state should probably be more aggressive and faster with it’s hiring practices, but the funding for an addition X number of firefighters to staff all engines year round is probably very significant and california is only avoiding a deficit because they’re burning savings
something’s gotta give…
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At least HR finally recognizes prior credentialed academies. That was a serious bottleneck when LG is glad to snatch already trained ppl up.
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Going to a single classification of ff was being discussed in the early 2000s when I was on the state board. I was sure it would come to fruition because it made sense. 20 years later and zero progress. We have FF1s and 2s riding the same engines, working the same WW, doing the same tasks but the 1s are still treated like 2nd class employees
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Does anyone recall the history around AB 2538 and why it got round filed?
There is a link earlier in this thread
It has all the history, including the Governor veto statement.
The seasonal / LT /TAU positions are designed to allow quick and easy hiring and they serve a vital purpose in the system. They are exempt from the Civil Service hiring process (which is not run by us). WE are the ones who have confused the process because we have fought to get these “temporary” hires full health benies and retirement. Yes, they deserve it, but in our minds there is little difference between the 1 and the 2. We are basically using a “temporary” class as a Permanent Intermittent hiring pool. However, we NEED to retain the ability to apply, screen and hire workers in a short term (2-3 month) time frame. Turning the FFI into a perm class could mean waiting 2 years for the State to make a new list… (see medic hire issues) We can’t settle for that. The system needs a different animal to allow speedy and efficient upstaffing and downsizing on an annual basis.
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Welp. Something happened. All NOPS units. Open up all stations. 1 engine per station and staff all FF1 hand crews this Monday the 20th.
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What does NOPS stand for?
North Ops .
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CalFire northern Region, north part of the state and part of Bay Area.
CNR not NOPS
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Tomato TOmato. CSR CNR SOPS NOPS.
Not sure if the south as well. Got the word to Hire all their FF1’s back.
But this is amazing news! Phone calls went out today.
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Districts I, II and V
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Where did this information come from? Was it an internal memo, or has the director said anything public?
If it was internal, is it scuttlebutt you heard or Dave you personally seen the directive? If it is real I have no idea how they plan to make that happen my unit only has staffing for 3ish stations right now with all the deployed resources.
Thank you.
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To “fire all their seasonal back”? For one engine per station, in NoOps?
HIRE. Sorry Typo ! LOL
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Take it easy I cut my teeth on one of those at Ione lol.
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