Volunteers more than stop-gaps at busy fire districts

The Anderson and Cottonwood Fire Protection Districts both sent a fire engine apiece to fight fires sparked by lighting across Shasta and Trinity Counties, dubbed by incident control as the Shasta Lightning Complex.

“Every time some fires get knocked down, more keep coming up,” said Battalion Chief Howard Fincher from the Anderson district on Thursday.

The weekend the fires began, Anderson, Cottonwood and Happy Valley firefighters all fought a 150-acre blaze near Coleman National Fish Hatchery. They fought without CDF assistance, and were understaffed for the occasion, said Battalion Chief Calvin Ciapponi of the Cottonwood district.

“There were actually two fires out there, but we couldn’t get equipment over to it until the next day, Ciapponi said. “Normally we’d have three CDF engines, helicopters and air tankers. We asked for the helicopter but didn’t get it.”

Ciapponi had been working for 72 hours straight at the district, which usually works him one day on, one day off.

“The volunteers have been putting in 110 percent,” Ciapponi said, adding that volunteers were currently working at the fire complex and manning the fire district.

The Anderson district firefighters tending to the fire complex were taking a day off on Thursday. It was a respite from working three to four days in a row, Fincher said.

“It’s business as usual,” Fincher said. “We shift schedules a little bit; and we have mutual aid, so the districts help each other out.”

Since the incident command center has set up at the fairgrounds, Fincher said Anderson could count on the phalanx of firefighters there to help out.

“If something happens in town, they would be there.”