New face in town, Camp Pendleton Fire gets a new Chief

Ken Helgerson, the fire chief of Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton Fire Department, poses in front of a fire engine at Camp Pendleton Fire Station 7, in the 52 Area on Camp Pendleton, California, May 4, 2020. Helgerson has been fire chief since January. Helgerson is a native of Somerset, Massachusetts. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Drake Nickels.)

CAMP PENDLETON, CA, UNITED STATES

05.04.2020

Story by Lance Cpl. Drake Nickels 

Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton  

The Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton Fire Department has a new leader for the upcoming fire season. As of January, Chief Ken Helgerson has taken the reins as the new fire chief.

Helgerson may be new to the Camp Pendleton Fire Department but is no stranger to leadership in the firefighting community. He served as a firefighter with the U.S. Air Force for 20 years and retired from active duty in 2005. Since then, he has held the role of fire chief at three other installations.

“Camp Pendleton feels like a natural fit,” said Helgerson. “My focus is to make sure we are doing everything in the way we are supposed to according to policy.”

Helgerson is in charge of over 100 firefighters spread across 11 stations that respond to all emergency calls on Camp Pendleton. The firefighters stay vigilant by strategically placing gear and personnel in different areas of the installation.

“I promote the firefighters handling and managing stress with the hazards they are presented with,” said Helgerson. “The ability to do that has to be generated with resources, by putting the right amount of people and equipment in the right places.”

While also working with the resources inside the gate, Helgerson also works with neighboring communities and their departments to ensure aid, training, resources and personnel are given where it's needed.

“The mutual aid partnership is about working together to ensure readiness for large scale emergencies,” added Helgerson. “It's important to get a large response footprint.”

Similar to the Marine Corps, the Camp Pendleton Fire Department leadership may change but the mission continues. Helgerson and his team are a key component to ensuring Marines continue to train while keeping the installation and the community safe.

California Guard prepares for annual non-virus enemy

U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey D. Smiley, joint staff director, California Military Department, and Chief Master Sgt. Thomas L. James, command senior enlisted leader, California National Guard, review firefighting assets of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) May 4 at McClellan Air Base, Sacramento. CAL FIRE initiated Wildfire Preparedness Week, creating public awareness of the fire season ahead. Via CAL FIRE, being ready for wildfire starts with maintaining an adequate defensible space and by hardening your home by using fire resistant building materials. For nearly three decades, CAL FIRE and Cal Guard share a unique firefighting program as both entities yearly battle a fierce enemy — wildfires. (Army National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Eddie Siguenza)

CA, UNITED STATES

05.04.2020

Story by Staff Sgt. Edward Siguenza 

California National Guard    

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — It’s not the novel coronavirus, nor is it terrorism, that the California National Guard deems it’s its greatest annual enemy.

This yearly foe is an unforgivable …. that will strike very soon. And it’s usually this time of year when Cal Guard unites with California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) to prepare for another battle with its nemesis — wildfires.

“We say it every year, and we’re doing it again: It’s not a question of ‘if’ California will burn, it’s when,” said Thom Porter, CAL FIRE director, during a May 4 initiation of Wildfire Preparedness Week. “This year is stacking up to be definitely more difficult looking than last year. Last year we had a lot of snow in the mountains, lots of late-season rain. We had a slow start to our peak fire season. That’s not going to be the same this year.”

Added Porter, “We’ve already started burning. We’re already 400 hundred fires ahead of our average for this time of the year.”

California is still in the mist of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it hasn’t deterred CAL FIRE and Cal Guard from their wildfire readiness. Cal Guard has already initiated air asset training in Southern California, as crews of CH-47 Chinooks and CH-60 Black Hawks are involved. These rotary-powered aircraft utilized “buckets” that can drop hundreds of gallons of water on wildfires that are difficult to reach.

In a matter of weeks, Northern California air assets will commence their preparedness.

Aside from rotary-powered aircraft, Cal Guard is equipped with Modular Airborne Firefighting System (MAFF) air tankers that can drop thousands of gallons of retardant or water on difficult terrain. Cal Guard has provided unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), sometimes known as drones, as eyes in the sky. These UAVs help determine a wildfire’s characteristics, such as its intensity and possible direction.

When necessary, Cal Guard has provided CAL FIRE with ground troops who “mop up” burnt areas. Armed with hand tools, these Soldiers seek and diffuse small fires that could potentially ignite in the future.

Cal Guard has provided other assets, such as military police, fuelers and bridge builders, in previous wildfires.

“We’re better prepared than we normally are. We’ve taken advantage of some of the slowdown in the Department of Defense to leverage money and time that we would otherwise not have available to dedicate to firefighting to further prepare ourselves,” said Maj. Gen. David Baldwin, adjutant general, California Military Department. “We have trained helicopter crews. We have five hand crews already trained and ready to respond immediately. We have identified another 800 Soldiers, Airmen and Sailors that could be available to be trained as firefighting hand crews. We continue to leverage our unique technologies that we have in the military.”

Added Baldwin, “We stand ready.”

Cal Guard activated more than 1,000 Soldiers, Airmen and State Guard personnel for COVID-19 humanitarian support. It recently reached a milestone as Cal Guard troops helped surpass more than 15 million meals packed and distributed to the community via food banks. Cal Guard has assisted at almost two dozen food banks throughout the state since mid-March, when Gov. Gavin Newsom activated the reserve component.

Since 2015, the state has weathered 10 of California’s Top 20 destructive fires in history, according to Mark Ghilarducci, director of California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES). He noted the Camp Fire in 2018 “being more catastrophic than the ones before.”

“We’re not immune to disasters,” Ghilarducci explained. “We’re challenged regularly.”

CAL FIRE, Cal Guard, and Cal OES unite with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management as well as California law enforcement to encourage everyone to create a fire prevention plan.

“As firefighters, we know that over the last several years we’ve had drought conditions that caused 147 million trees to die in the sierra,” Porter explained. “Those trees are still out there. No amount of rain is going to bring those trees back.”

The public and all California communities to prepare for wildfires during this COVID-19 term. More information can be found at www.fire.ca.gov or www.readyforwildfire.org. 

Thom Porter, director, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), announces the beginning of Wildfire Preparedness Week May 4 as California Military Department adjutant general Maj. Gen. David Baldwin supports the announcement during a press conference at McClellan Air Base, Sacramento. Porter commended Cal Guard, noting their partnership has “gotten so tight over the last few years” as firefighting operations became so demanding due to the large and destructive wildfires of late. (Army National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Eddie Siguenza)

New training equipment keeps USAG RP firefighters in top form

Photo By Keith Pannell | A firefighter from the U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz trains to put out a car fire using the garrison's new Hose Line Training Aid System. Training chiefs can switch out different training aids to simulate fires with propane tanks, barbecue grills, gas meters and numerous other types of fires firefighters may encounter.

KAISERSLAUTERN, RP, GERMANY

05.03.2020

Story by Keith Pannell 

U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz  

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany – In the beginning of March, just before the COVID-19 pandemic started in Germany, the U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz Fire Department received nearly $165,000 in training equipment.

The 15 training aids that make up the garrison’s Hose Line Training Aid System are meant to give firefighters an advantage in dousing a real blaze by practicing on those items which simulate gas and other burning hazardous materials.

“This gives us the opportunity to do fire hose line training in realistic scenarios,” said Thomas Rothmann, USAG RP Fire Department assistant chief for training. “We can train on a car fire, a HAZMAT tank, a barbecue grill, a gas meter, a dumpster, and all kinds of fun stuff we can light up and simulate fires, with flames and smoke and sounds, for training.”

USAG RP firefighters have formal training through both the host nation fire schools and the Regional Firefighting Training Center in Ansbach, Germany. However, their training never stops.

The $165,000 training system allows the firefighters to focus their energy on scenarios they’re most likely to see. The price equates to an investment of about $720 per garrison firefighter, according to Marshall Fiedler, USAG RP Fire Department chief.

“The training props were specifically chosen because they represent a particular hazard we may face here in our community,” Fiedler said.

The system is mobile, which means it can go to the different fire stations within the garrison footprint. Garrison firefighters from Mannheim to Baumholder can stay at their stations and train with the system, then shut it off and go to a real-world emergency call if needed. The garrison can also add to the system with the purchase of additional appliances.

The system uses propane to simulate fires during a selected scenario. The firefighters pull their pumper trucks up, don their protective gear and pull hose as they would at a real fire. In the meantime, the training officer has a remote that controls the level of the flames, smoke, sounds of fire sizzling, gas escaping from a gas meter or even a crying baby to help the crews train.

“In the real world, you don’t get to a fire and there’s only fire,” Rothmann said. “You always have a sound of fire. And the sounds themselves can put you in a stressful situation. We want to put our firefighters in the same stressful situation here that they would find when responding to a fire.”

Rothmann said the types of fires garrison firefighters respond to most, not counting mutual aid calls with the host nation, are barbecue grill fires and dumpsters.

“Quite often,” he said.

Fiedler said the new training aids are perfect to help train with the seven new pumper trucks the garrison received last year. There are also plans to take the equipment on the road to train at other garrisons, as well as with host nation and Air Force firefighters.

A U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz firefighter trains to put out a car fire using the garrison's new Hose Line Training Aid System. Training chiefs can switch out different training aids to simulate fires with propane tanks, barbecue grills, gas meters and numerous other types of fires firefighters may encounter.

Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting conducts mobile aircraft fire training

CAMP PENDLETON, CA, UNITED STATES
03.05.2020
Photo by Lance Cpl. Alison Dostie
Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton 

U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Ariana Alcantar, left, a rescue specialist with Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting, Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron, Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton, controls a fire hose during mobile aircraft fire training on MCAS Camp Pendleton, California, March 5, 2020. The MAFT is used to simulate an aircraft in need of rescue. This training helps keep the Marines ready to respond at a moment's notice. Alcantar is a native of Chicago. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Alison Dostie)



U.S. Marines with Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting, Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron, Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton, extinguish a fire during mobile aircraft fire training on MCAS Camp Pendleton, California, March 5, 2020. The MAFT is used to simulate an aircraft in need of rescue. This training helps keep the Marines ready to respond at a moment's notice. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Alison Dostie)

SASEBO: Fire Chief John T. Adkins addresses firefighters

SASEBO, NAGASAKI, JAPAN
03.06.2020
Photo by Seaman Apprentice Jasmine Ikusebiala
Commander, Fleet Activities Sasebo 

SASEBO, Japan (Mar. 6, 2020) - Commander, Navy Region Japan Fire & Emergency Services Sasebo Fire Chief John T. Adkins addresses firefighters during an award ceremony held onboard Commander, Fleet Activities Sasebo Mar. 6, 2020. The ceremony was held to award firefighters for their contributions to CFAS during the 2019 fiscal year. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Apprentice Jasmine Ikusebiala)