VIDEO: Contra Costa Fire Assistant Chief, Chris Bachman was watching the department’s 2019 Fire Academy Class as they worked through their final phase of training.
“We’re doing some control burning, getting our recruits some hands on experience, getting them the feel of what it’s going to be like and what they can expect this summer,” says Chief Bachman.
It is a controlled live burn, final training for Recruit Academy 53, in four-foot-tall burning brush. Contra Costa County is covered in it! This is real fire, real danger. Shane Neveau is Tuesday’s Incident Commander for the exercise.
“Even taller brush than we had in the past. It’s thicker, taller and it’s drying out really fast. One small little spark can really do a lot of damage,” says Cmdr. Neveau.
Chief Bachman says the firefighter’s nightmare is just around the corner — 4th of July.
“We’ll have a demonstration here shortly to show how fast even just a sparkler can get out of control putting your home or your neighbor’s home at risk,” says Chief Bachman.