The California Division of Forestry and Fireplace Safety will welcome 40 college students Monday to its model new firefighter coaching facility in Merced County as a part of a multiyear push to bolster its workforce.
The Atwater Coaching Heart, at a former Air Drive base, joins three different coaching facilities that Cal Fireplace stated will prepare about 1,600 firefighters in 2025. At full capability, Atwater can assist 300 college students a 12 months to change into entry-level firefighters and firm officers, accountable for main operations within the subject.
College students “may graduate from our academy and, their subsequent day, arrive on scene and need to command the fireplace,” stated Nicole Gissell, a Cal Fireplace assistant chief who helps oversee the facilities’ curriculum.
The opening comes amid reporting from ProPublica that greater than 4,500 federal firefighting jobs within the U.S. Forest Service — about 27% — stay vacant. Firstly of the month, Gov. Gavin Newsom introduced the battle to President Trump by sending his workplace a proposed government order that, he stated, challenged the administration to match the Golden State’s funding in fireplace preparedness.
The primary of Cal Fireplace’s coaching facilities opened in 1967 with 32 college students in Ione, Calif. It served because the division’s sole coaching middle till 2017, when, in fast succession, Cal Fireplace opened places in Riverside, then in Redding in 2023, and now Atwater in 2025.
Since 2017, the governor and state Legislature have almost doubled the variety of approved fireplace safety positions at Cal Fireplace, in response to California Division of Finance information. It corresponded to a doubling of the division’s funds from $2 billion within the 2017-18 funds to $4.2 billion within the 2024-25 funds — 90% of which is devoted to fireplace safety.
A Cal Fireplace spokesperson stated the division, as of July, has 12,223 workers, together with seasonal firefighters — already above 2024’s excessive of 11,754. The division expects its variety of firefighters to peak with fireplace season round September.
“Our coaching program might be probably the greatest within the fireplace service,” Gissell stated, “and we’ve simply been rising within the final 5 years to satisfy the calls for of the division and to coach all 12,000 workers.”
The brand new Atwater middle will home two of the seven cadres of fireside instructors instructing throughout the 4 facilities. Via a 10-week program, college students study fundamental firefighting, fireplace science, management abilities and how you can function fireplace gear.
Past lecture rooms, Atwater has fireplace towers, off-road driving programs and a collection of buildings used for search-and-rescue observe. College students will spend a full week working with stay fireplace.
Cal Fireplace is actively hiring throughout its fireplace safety program, together with entry-level firefighters, heavy gear operators and battalion chiefs.
