Save for Crew Discussion. These posts were moved here due to bogging down the other Thread. This is a worthwhile discussion so please carry on here. Please be civil and don’t Nash other agencies, we are entering into a busy time and the Mods are doing the beat we can while working our real jobs. Thank you
Any update on the status of the CAL FIRE Crews? I’m hearing rumors and only rumors of some camps being closed not only due to budget but COVID as well.
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Yes, in Northern Region there are at least 12 camps on lockdown due to potential covid exposure. Last I heard there were only 5 camps open in the North ( if the math doesn’t pencil out, it’s ball park). Best case scenario camps will be coming back online early in the work week. Worst case(positive test) looking at 14 days then re-testing.
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CF will be staffing 21 Firefighter I hand crews throughout the state as of Monday, July 6.
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Will these crews be (California) Type 1 rated or more like Type 2IA?
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Last bit of info I heard on the FF1 handcrews,
1st step, assemble crews with voluntary Capt’s and FF’s, in unit responses only
2nd step, work on Typing out the crews before next fire season if not sooner as conditions prevail
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That’s going to be interesting with the lack of staffing
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Does anyone know how secure our retardant supply chain is? All ingredients available/made here? Reserves?
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Healthy! 
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With that information it would seem that, foe at least this year, they can’t be typed higher then a Type 2 Crew. That will have a significant effect for both CF but Fed’s as well as they use a lot of CF crews, especially on IA.
To be used on a calfire incident they dont need to be typed. To be used for unified command they will probably be T2IA. The details are still being worked out but we have a significant drawdown on inmate crews right now so i would expect to see them used creativly and alot more contract crews than normal.
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Sorry, but CDF crews are barely Type 2IA, cannot be broke up due to having only one supervisor (Capt.) and only the quals that the Capt has. How about plugging in some FAE’s the mix to help with:
a. the workload (split on the line , at camp, etc…)
b. drive time (duh)
c. gets more crew time and fire experience for later promotion.
d. make a requirement for JAC, units have new FAE’s for three years now. Why not supplement the camps. Swinging a tool for hours on day teaches a lot.
Technically FAE’s are supervisors. Why cant they help out in the camps? Or at least start in the FF1 crews and see how things go.
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This discussion is as old as the crews themselves. While all of your points are valid, ( and discussed ad-nauseum) for years, the agency simply does not have the budget to support this. These and many other ideas have been floated, and while they may not have been implemented, the program is evolving for the already discussed reasons. The answers are simply not a CALFIRE discussion. CDCR is the other half of the stakeholder here. The recent liberal State legislation regarding sentencing has had a much bigger impact on available inmates for the program, along with civid-19. Hence the evolution.
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Either way, there has definitely been positive response among CF employees in regards to initial interest in being on a new crew. Looks like some both great FFs and Captains throwing there name in the hat.
We’ll see how it runs out!
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I heard there were going to be 2 captains so they would be able to split the crew. Hopefully they model the hotshot crews with captains, engineers, some ff2 and ff1. Of course they would also need a supt of some kind too but I don’t see them adding a BC. No one really knows what is going to come of all this, but it seems like a good move to me.
1 FC and 3-4 FF 1’s. Nothing crazy. In a utility. Not typed nothing like that. Just in unit responses.
Thats not how it will be in MVU. Still going to be mostly in unit, but we will have more than 5 people
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Ok I heard that from a guy down in CZU
The czu crew is slated for 2 FC and 11 ff1. They have 9 already and looking to expand to 11, info is from the AO.
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Oh you know CDF. Changes Decisions Frequently. This is an extremely dynamic situation forsure.
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