The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, colloquially known as CAL FIRE, is the

fire department A fire department (North American English) or fire brigade (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as a fire company, fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organi ...

of the California Natural Resources Agency in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. It is responsible for fire protection in various areas under state responsibility totaling 31 million acres, as well as the administration of the state's private and public

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

s. In addition, the department provides varied emergency services in 36 of the state's 58 counties via contracts with local governments. The department's current director is Joe Tyler, who was appointed March 4, 2022, by

Governor of California The governor of California is the head of government of the U.S. state of California. The Governor (United States), governor is the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Guard. Established in the Constit ...

Gavin Newsom Gavin Christopher Newsom ( ; born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman serving since 2019 as the 40th governor of California. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served from 2011 to 201 ...

Operations

CAL FIRE's foremost operational role is to fight and prevent wildfire on 31 million acres of state forestland. The organization works in both suppression and prevention capacities on state land, and offers emergency services of various kinds in 36 out of California's 58 counties, through contracts with local governments. The organization also assists in response to a wide range of disasters and incidents, including earthquakes, water rescues, and hazardous material spills. The organization manages eight Demonstration State Forests for timber production, recreation, and research. In conjunction with the

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is the penal law enforcement agency of the government of California responsible for the operation of the California state prison and parole systems. Its headquarters are in Sacra ...

(CDCR), CAL FIRE uses thousands of incarcerated firefighters at 44 conservation camps throughout the state on fire prevention, fire suppression, and various maintenance and conservation projects. CAL FIRE works with employees of the

California Conservation Corps The California Conservation Corps, CCC, is a department of the government of California, falling under the state Cabinet (government), cabinet-level California Resources Agency. The CCC is a voluntary work development program specifically for me ...

since that agency's creation in a partnership for fire suppression duties, logistics and forestry management. CCC members are involved in job training programs as Type 1 Hand Crew firefighters, supervised by CAL FIRE personnel, in increasing prevalence to offset CDCR inmates as the incarcerated firefighter program is closed. Programs to control wood boring insects and diseases of trees are under forestry programs managed by CAL FIRE. The vehicle fleet is managed from an office in

Davis, California Davis is the most populous city in Yolo County, California, United States. Located in the Sacramento Valley region of Northern California, the city had a population of 66,850 in 2020, not including the on-campus population of the University of ...

.''State of California 1998 Telephone Directory'', (Sacramento: State of California, Department of General Services).

Organizational structure

The largest and most visible part of CAL FIRE operations is fire protection. Operations are divided into 21 operational units, which geographically follow county lines. Each unit consists of the area of one or more counties. Operational units are grouped under either the North Region or South Region. The Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM) is the CAL FIRE program that protects life and property through the development and application of fire prevention, engineering, training and education, and enforcement. The Office of the State Fire Marshal provides support through a variety of fire safety responsibilities including: regulating occupied buildings; controlling substances and products which may cause injuries, death and destruction by fire; providing statewide direction for fire prevention within wildland areas; regulating hazardous liquid pipelines; developing and reviewing regulations and building standards; and providing training and education in fire protection methods and responsibilities. There are two CAL FIRE training centers. The original academy is the CAL FIRE Training Center in Ione, east of Sacramento. The second academy is at the Ben Clark Training Center in Riverside. Both centers host the Fire Fighter Academy (FFA). All CAL FIRE Fire Protection employees go through this academy once they become permanent employees. The Company Officer Academy (COA) is only held in Ione. All new company officers (Engineer, Captain, Forester I, etc.) attend this academy.

Rank structure

Leadership

The uniformed executive staff of CAL FIRE includes the following individuals. * Director: Joe Tyler * Chief Deputy Director: Anale Burlew * State Fire Marshal: Daniel Berlant * Assistant State Fire Marshal: Vickie Sakamoto * Deputy Director, Communications/Incident Awareness: Nick Schuler * Southern Region Chief: Mike van Loben Sels * Northern Region Chief: George Morris III * Deputy Director, Resource Management: Matthew Reischman * Deputy Director, Cooperative Fire Protection: Matthew Sully * Deputy Director, Fire Protection Programs: Jake Sjolund * Deputy Director, Community Wildfire Preparedness & Mitigation and Fire Engineering & Investigations Division: Frank Bigelow

Pay

As of 2017,

median The median of a set of numbers is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a Sample (statistics), data sample, a statistical population, population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as the “ ...

pay for full time firefighters (which includes base pay, special pay, overtime and benefits) is $148,000.

Representation

Firefighters employed by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection are represented by IAFF affiliate, CAL FIRE Local 2881, which represents 5,700 members within CAL FIRE Local 2881 and is also associated with the California Professional Firefighters (CPF) and the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF).

Operational units

Operational units are organizations designed to address fire suppression over a geographic area. They vary widely in size and

terrain Terrain (), alternatively relief or topographical relief, is the dimension and shape of a given surface of land. In physical geography, terrain is the lay of the land. This is usually expressed in terms of the elevation, slope, and orientati ...

. For example, Lassen-Modoc-Plumas Operational Unit encompasses three

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically desc ...

counties A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

and consists of eight fire stations, one Helitack Base, three conservation camps and an inmate firefighter training center. Fire suppression resources include 13 front-line fire engines, 1 helicopter, 3 bulldozers and 14 inmate fire crews. The unit shares an interagency emergency command center with federal agencies including the US Forest Service,

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

, and the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands, U.S. federal lands. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the BLM oversees more than of land, or one ...

. An interagency center contributes to economies of scale, supports cooperation, and lends itself to a more seamless operation. The area has fragmented jurisdictions across a large rural area along the

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

and

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

state lines. The Riverside Operational Unit (RRU) by itself would be considered one of the largest fire departments in the nation, with 95 fire stations and approximately 230 pieces of equipment. The Riverside Operational Unit operates as the Riverside County Fire Department under contract with Riverside County, as well as eighteen municipal fire departments and one community services district fire department. Nine of the stations in Riverside County belong to the state, while the rest are owned by their respective local government entity. The unit operates its own emergency command center in Perris. Terrain served includes urban and

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

an areas of the

Inland Empire The Inland Empire (commonly abbreviated as the IE) is a metropolitan area and region inland of and adjacent to coastal Southern California, centering around the cities of San Bernardino and Riverside, and bordering Los Angeles County and Or ...

and the desert communities in the metropolitan Palm Springs area. The area includes forested mountains, dry scrub forest, chaparral, agricultural land, the

Colorado River The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United St ...

basin, the Colorado Desert, the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...

, and

Interstate 10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost transcontinental highway in the Interstate Highway System of the United States. It is the fourth-longest Interstate in the country at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. It was part of the origina ...

from the Los Angeles Metropolitan area to the Arizona state line. The counties of Marin (MRN), Kern (KRN), Santa Barbara (SBC), Ventura (VNC), Los Angeles (LAC) and Orange (ORC) have an agreement with the state to provide fire protection for state responsibility areas within those counties rather than CAL FIRE providing direct fire protection, and are commonly known as the "Contract Counties". Lawmakers in Sacramento have mandated that every operational unit develop and implement an annual fire management plan. The plan will develop cooperation and community programs to reduce damage from, and costs of, fires in California. One metric used by fire suppression units is ''initial attack success: ''fires stopped by the initial resources (equipment and personnel) sent to the incident.

Northern Region units and identifiers

*Amador-El Dorado Unit – AEU / 2700 (Including Sacramento and Alpine Counties) *Butte Unit – BTU / 2100 *Humboldt-Del Norte Unit – HUU / 1200 *Lassen-Modoc-Plumas Unit – LMU / 2200 (Including Plumas County as of June 2008) *Mendocino Unit – MEU / 1100 *Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit – NEU / 2300 (Including Sutter and Sierra Counties) *San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit – CZU / 1700 *Santa Clara Unit – SCU / 1600 (Including Contra Costa, Alameda, Santa Clara, and parts of San Joaquin, and Stanislaus Counties) *Shasta-Trinity Unit – SHU / 2400 *Siskiyou Unit – SKU / 2600 *Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit – LNU / 1400 (Including Solano, Yolo, and Colusa Counties) *Tehama-Glenn Unit – TGU / 2500

Southern Region units and identifiers

*Fresno-Kings Unit – FKU / 4300 *Madera-Mariposa-Merced Unit – MMU / 4200 *Riverside Unit – RRU / 3100 *San Benito-Monterey Unit – BEU / 4600 *San Bernardino Unit – BDU / 3500 (Including Inyo and Mono Counties) *San Diego Unit – SDU / 3300 (Including Imperial County) *San Luis Obispo Unit – SLU / 3400 *Tulare Unit – TUU / 4100 *Tuolumne-Calaveras Unit – TCU / 4400 (Including portions of San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Alpine counties)

Equipment

Apparatus

CAL FIRE uses various apparatus to accomplish their daily responses. Engines fall under two categories, either being state-owned or city/county owned, which CAL FIRE operates under contract. For the wildland portion, most engines are manufactured with West-Mark or Westates (now American Truck & Fire Apparatus) bodies on an International chassis. Commonly seen models of wildland engines include the Model 14, and 15. CAL FIRE Models 24 and 25 were test-bed models, with only a few of each model fielded. The newest versions of these engines are CAL FIRE model 34 (4WD) and 35 (2WD), manufactured by Placer Fire Equipment, Rosenbauer, and HME. Model 34/35's are currently being fielded statewide. As of 2009 Model 35's have been discontinued and Model 34's from BME Apparatus are the new standard. Fact sheets on all of CAL FIRE's current-service Type 3 (wildland) engine models can be found on the CAL FIRE Web site under Mobile Equipment. Image:cdfengine.jpg, Type-3 Wildland Engine, CAL FIRE Model 14 Image:cdf_engine.jpg, Type-3 Wildland Engine, CAL FIRE Model 5 Image:CDF_MOD24.jpg, Type-3 Wildland Engine, CAL FIRE Model 24 Image:Smeal Type-1 Municipal Engine.jpg, Smeal Type-1 Municipal Engine, owned by San Luis Obispo County and operated by CAL FIRE under contract

Air program

CAL FIRE owns its own fleet of air tankers, tactical aircraft and helicopters, which are managed under the Aviation Management Program. Additional aviation resources are leased by the department when needed. All of the fixed wing aircraft, while owned by CAL FIRE, are piloted and maintained by DynCorp International. The CAL FIRE Air Program is one of the largest non-military air programs in the country, consisting of 23 Grumman S-2 Tracker (S-2T version) 1,200 gallon fixed wing turboprop air tankers, seven Lockheed-Martin C-130H Hercules 4,000 gallon fixed-wing turboprop air tankers (in service in 2025), 14 North American Rockwell OV-10 Bronco fixed wing turboprop air tactical aircraft and 12 Bell UH-1H Super Huey helicopters. CAL FIRE has also now begun operating new Sikorsky S-70i Firehawk helicopters for aerial firefighting support including water drops and is planning to acquire up to 12 of these rotorcraft to replace the aging Bell UH-1H Super Huey fleet. From the 13 air attack and ten 10 helitack bases located statewide, aircraft can reach most fires within 20 minutes. Aircraft are a prominent feature of CAL FIRE, especially during the summer fire season. Both fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft are employed. Helicopters (also known as

rotorcraft A rotary-wing aircraft, rotorwing aircraft or rotorcraft is a heavier-than-air aircraft with rotor wing, rotary wings that spin around a vertical mast to generate lift (force), lift. Part 1 (Definitions and Abbreviations) of Subchapter A of Chapt ...

or rotary wing aircraft) are used to transport firefighting "Helitack Crews" into fire areas. They also drop water and retardant chemicals on fires. Fixed-wing aircraft are used for

command Command may refer to: Computing * Command (computing), a statement in a computer language * command (Unix), a Unix command * COMMAND.COM, the default operating system shell and command-line interpreter for DOS * Command key, a modifier key on A ...

, observation, and to drop retardant chemicals on fires.Fraser, Debbie, ''CDF Training and Academy Course Catalog, March 2006,'' (Ione, California: State of California, Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, 2006). CAL FIRE contracted in the past with 10 Tanker Air Carrier for three years' of exclusive use of their McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 heavy air tanker known as

Tanker 910 The DC-10 Air Tanker is a series of 5 air tankers converted by American joint technical venture 10 Tanker Air Carrier, which have been in service as aerial firefighting aircraft since 2006. The aircraft are converted McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30s ...

for

aerial firefighting Aerial firefighting, also known as waterbombing, is the use of aircraft and other aerial resources to Wildfire suppression, combat wildfires. The types of aircraft used include fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. Smokejumpers and rappellers ar ...

at a cost of $5 million per year. Additional access was also provided to DC-10-30 air tankers, being Tanker 911 and Tanker 912. In 2014 Tanker 910 was retired; however, 10 Tanker Air Carrier continues to currently operate several DC-10-30 air tankers. On October 7, 2014, a CAL FIRE S-2T air tanker crashed while fighting the Dog Rock Fire in

Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park ( ) is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States in California. It is bordered on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The p ...

. The pilot was killed.Plane Crashes At Yosemite National Park During Fight Against Dog Rock Fire
KOVR-TV, October 7, 2014 File:Waterbomber in Los Angeles County.jpg, Tanker 910 during a drop demonstration in December, 2006 File:Cdf-b205-N497DF-061027-02cr-16.jpg, CAL FIRE "Super Huey", formerly an UH-1H, assigned to the Bieber Helitack crew, takes off from the Mojave Airport File:Cdf-ov10-N415DF-071022-fox-02-16.jpg, CAL FIRE OV-10 Bronco "Air Attack 460" at Fox Field during the October 2007 California wildfires File:CAL FIRE Chico S-2T Airtanker 93 N450DF (2024)-104A6791.jpg, Tanker 93, a Grumman S-2T airtanker based at the CAL FIRE Chico Air Attack Base, at Chico Regional Airport (CIC) in Butte County, November 2024

Communications

CAL FIRE uses several enterprise IT systems to manage operations. Altaris Computer-Assisted Dispatch (CAD), made by

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational Aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and Arms industry, defense company. With 97,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $40 billion, it is one of the world's largest Arms industry ...

, is employed by each unit's Emergency Command Center (ECC) to track available resources and assignments. This is made possible through the use of an automatic vehicle locating system which provides vehicle location, data communication, and dispatching through a mobile data terminal (MDT) and a multi-network switching system in over 1200 vehicles statewide. Each operational unit has a stand-alone system which includes detailed address and mapping information.

Cal Fire Contract Counties

The department also provides varied emergency services in 36 of the state's 58 counties that dont have a fire department in the form contract counties which are the county equivalent of contract cities. The contract counties are Amador,

Butte In geomorphology, a butte ( ) is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and table (landform), tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from the French l ...

, Calaveras, Del Norte, El Dorado, Fresno, Glenn, Humboldt, Kings,

Lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

, Lassen, Madera, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Merced, Modoc,

Monterey Monterey ( ; ) is a city situated on the southern edge of Monterey Bay, on the Central Coast of California. Located in Monterey County, the city occupies a land area of and recorded a population of 30,218 in the 2020 census. The city was fou ...

, Napa, Placer, Riverside, Tehama,

Trinity The Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the Christian doctrine concerning the nature of God, which defines one God existing in three, , consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, thr ...

, Tulare, Tuolumne, San Benito,

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

San Luis Obispo ; ; ; Chumashan languages, Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Located on the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly halfway betwee ...

, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Siskiyou, Sonoma, Nevada (County) and Yuba along with there contract cities via contracts with local governments.

In popular culture

'' Fire Country'' is an American

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

television series in which a young convict volunteers for the Conservation Camp Program and assists Cal Fire.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:California Department Of Forestry And Fire Protection Fire departments in California Firefighting in California Emergency services in California

Forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests and woodlands for associated resources for human and Natural environment, environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and ...

Forestry and Fire Protection State forestry agencies in the United States State environmental protection agencies of the United States Wildfire suppression agencies Aerial firefighting Government agencies established in 1905 1905 establishments in California