Annual Division II Wildland Exercise

LACoFD personnel critique their strategy during their annual Division II Wildland Fire Training Exercise held on May 16. (Photo by Alicia Mejia)

LACoFD's annual Division II Wildland Fire Training Exercise was held on May 16. During the drill, nearly 60 personnel from agencies including the United States Forest Service, La Verne Fire Department, Claremont CERT Volunteers and our Department converged at the Initial Action Zone or Mutual Threat Zone at Helispot 102-A located next to Fire Camp 17 in the unincorporated area of La Verne. This multi-agency exercise demonstrated the ability to work together in critical operations such as command, wildland hose lays, fire-shelter deployment, eductor water source operations, structure defense, helispot operations, wildland safety and communication interoperability. Drills such as this give our firefighters the opportunity to meet other firefighters from neighboring fire agencies and learn each other's operations, equipment, strategy and tactics in order to enhance our initial attack performance as a team during a major wildfire/brush incident. Thanks to all of the agencies that participated in this important drill.