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Volunteer Firefighters Learn Skills at Chiefs Academy

Volunteer firefighters learn about the Arizona Vortex, a large tripod they will use to lower a student resucer over the embankment.

January 21, 2020 — Volunteer firefighters are often the first responders on the scene of an accident in in rural Mendocino County. They put in a lot of time, learning the technical skills they need to be effective in a range of emergencies. Right now, thirty volunteer firefighters from Piercy to the South Coast and points between are taking part in a Chiefs Academy, which is three months of training every weekend to acquire those skills. 

Most recently, they were in Hopland, lowering each other into a ravine by the side of a road, so they’ll know what to do if they have to retrieve an unfortunate motorist. 

Ron Roysum is a volunteer battalion chief for Hopland Fire as well as an owner and the lead instructor for Rescue Solutions, a company specializing in technical rescue services. He says there are about thirty over the cliff rescues a year in his district alone.  And Kendall Trimble, also with Hopland Fire, says she went on an over the cliff resuce shortly after completing the Chiefs Academy last year. Jesse Stanley, with the Mendocino Volunteer Fire Department, has been a volunteer firefighter for six months, but he's been involved with search and rescue, in various counties, since 1992.* He says one of the most important things for prospective firefighters is “never stop learning.”

 

 

 
*An earlier version of this story stated incorrectly that Stanley has been a volunteer firefighter since 1992. That is the year he started doing search and rescue work in Marin County.

Local News