Conservation Corps Dispatched to Southern Calif. Fires - Ccc Crews From Throughout The State Responding
Incident: Ranch Wildland Fire
Released: 10/25/2007
More than 450 California Conservation Corps members - crews from as far away as Redding and Lake Tahoe - are aiding in the Southern California firefighting effort.
"Emergency response is a vital part of our mission," said CCC Director David Muraki. "We'll go wherever they need us. And the corpsmembers are doing an outstanding job, putting in up to 16 hour days without complaints."
Thirty five CCC crews are providing initial attack on the firelines as well as assisting with fire camp support on fires in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and San Diego counties. Additional Corps resources may be called upon in the next few days.
Once the fires are out, Muraki said, the Corps hopes to help with recovery efforts, as they did this summer following June's Angora fire at Lake Tahoe. Work could include debris removal, erosion control and revegetation efforts.
CCC crews currently responding to the fires are from Auburn, Camarillo, Fresno, Greenwood, Los Angeles, Norwalk, Pomona, Redding, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Maria, Stockton, South Lake Tahoe, Ukiah and Watsonville.
In San Diego County, the CCC devoted thousands of hours to recovery work following the 2003 Cedar and paradise fires. Crews tackled similar work following past fires in Malibu, Laguna Beach and other Southern California locations, and the 1991 Oakland Hills fire in Northern California. The CCC also mobilized several hundred corpsmembers to provide hurricane recovery work in Louisiana in 2005.
Members of the CCC are young men and women between the ages of 18 and 25 who sign up for a year of natural resource work and emergency response. They earn minimum wage, with the opportunity for scholarships and career direction following their year in the CCC. Since it was created in 1976, more than 100,000 young people have participated in the California Conservation Corps. For more information, visit the Corps' web site at www.ccc.ca.gov.
