HOW CAL GUARD HAS BECOME A CRITICAL PART OF WILDFIRE PREVENTION IN CALIFORNIA

 USA – NEVADA CITY, Calif. — The California National Guard has been helping fight wildfires after they start in the state for years. Then in 2019, California state and National Guard troops trained by Cal Fire were tasked with a different mission — prevent massive wildfires before they ignite.

KCRA 3 has been following Joint Task Force Rattlesnake since the effort kicked off in April 2019.

A 20-soldier unit, called the Auburn Acorns, was building a fire break over 850 acres surrounding the city of Colfax. The goal was to remove wood, brush and plants that could potentially add to a fire if it were to sweep through the area. Since Rattlesnake’s beginning, soldiers and airmen have become well-trained firefighters. Hand crews have cut and cleared thousands more acres in areas identified by Cal Fire as high risk in the central and northern parts of the state.

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KCRA 3 anchor Ty Steele and photojournalist Brandon Atchison caught up with another Rattlesnake team two years later in a wooded community just outside Nevada City. After the state experienced its worst fire season in history in 2020, California National Guard Brigadier Gen. Jeff Smiley added this location to his senior leader tour.

“I cannot be more proud of what you’ve achieved here,” Smiley said after ordering the Guardsmen out of the brush for a short break. “This is not easy work here.”

This hand crew is one of 10 Rattlesnake teams working throughout the year to reduce fire debris and potential fuel. Cal Guard service members create fire breaks by thinning forests with chainsaws and pickaxes and undertake controlled burns.

Once fire season starts, Rattlesnake teams shift from a prevention mission to firefighting.

During the CZU Lightning Complex fires that ignited in mid-August 2020, more than two dozen firefighting troops hiked thousands of feet per day, in scorching heat and across mountainous terrain, to cut fire lines, clear debris and create safe zones in a wooded community near Santa Cruz.

Source: https://gfmc.online/2021/04-2021/how-cal-guard-has-become-a-critical-par...