Evolution of CAL FIRE's response to wildfires | News

BUTTE COUNTY, CA. – When a fire breaks out in our area, we hear the calls coming from our newsroom, and often it's only minutes before an air tanker is on the way, even for a small plume of smoke .

Action News Now spoke with CAL FIRE Captain Dan Collins about how CAL FIRE has evolved its wildfire response protocols over the past several years.

“We got more support from the governor, and we gained more equipment and more staff,” Collins said.

As we enter wildfire season, Collins told Action News Now that with an increase in the state budget for his department in recent years, they have been able to access more equipment and open new job opportunities to expand their team. Collins says the way CAL FIRE responds is the same, but they respond with a lot more people.

“Just having more resources in the county is going to help everyone because we will have more troops on the ground and potentially more assets in the air to respond to our fires and put them out,” Collins said.

Collins said the department is using more planes to respond to wildfires because they can get there faster. This means they can begin fighting the fire until ground crews arrive.

“Those planes can get to those fire zones, especially if they're in a more remote area, faster than our ground assets, so they can start dropping retardant and water on them, which “which essentially boils down to containing the fire and slowing the spread so that our Earth resources can go in and complete containment of the fire by laying hoses or cutting a fire brake in or around the fire,” he said. Collins said.

Collins said they were able to purchase more equipment, but also had a helicopter under contract with the state based in Chico. He also said the helicopter could hold up to 1,000 gallons of water to help slow the spread of the flames.

Collins told Action News Now that seasonal firefighters train at the Openshaw Training Center to prepare for wildfire season. Collins said these firefighters will fully staff Butte County stations.

Collins said the group of firefighters at the training center will begin work Monday.