Tim,

Try cdfslo.org that is the website for the San Luis unit. They usually put on a couple courses a year. tkfiretraining.org is the Tulare-Kings County training officer website. They may have something there too. Also try Chabotfire.com there are links for training among other valuable information. I believe the class is an 80 hour class now. Hope this helps.

Steve

I think the best or easiest to get into are Riverside County, SLO, and Rio Hondo academy has a 67 hour course as well

You could check with the USFS too, while they don't offer CDF's training they do offer a 40 hour wildland class, typically we accept the CDF 67 hour training and they accept our 40 hour training. The main differance to make up the 27 hours is hazmat and structural training which we do once you get into your station. If you will have a FF1 academy done you will already have this training.

Obviously if you are looking at CDF then having their class will be an advantage but the 40 hour can still get you in the door.

If you are in San Diego your nearest forest would be the Cleveland NF, the Angeles NF is a bit further north east and the Los Padres further North west.

You can use this link to find forest contact info

http://www.fs.fed.us/

AFed,

I'm not sure when things changed, but I can assure you that CDF offers no reciprocity for the 67 hour course. It has to be departmentally sanctioned for it to count.

Also, there is no HazMat component to the course, and there is virtually no structure fire content. The 67 hour course is designed to introduce new seasonal firefighters to some basic skills, terminology and concepts they will need to know in order to be wildland firefighters.

It is also prerequisite for all other phases of CDF academy training. So if you get hired as a Firefighter II and don't have it you will have to take it even if you already know all the content therein.

CDF new hires are sent through a seperate HazMat FRO class, and a whole slew of other mandated courses subsequent to hire.

If you want to work for CDF there is no substitute.
Good Luck!

Well I've had to deal with this before, we had a kid come to us from CDF and we had to go through the training he received to see how it matched ours, I had to deal with one of the Captains from a local CDF station so that is where I got the info on what was covered, I also went through the training materials he had for the training.

In turn CDF has hired our guys who had our training. What they make them do after they hire them I have no idea, but our training was enough to get them hired mid season is all I know.

Don't get me wrong you can certainly get hired without it, but there is no substitute. You will have to go through it at some point.

Forest Service employees are always good mid-season hires. They usually have the best training...experience!

Anyway, you always seem to have good info. I thought I'd just pass along what I know.
Good Luck!

I didn't take what you're saying badly, I work closely with CDF but not for CDF, I know some of my info is skewed because I just get enough info from the "other side" to get what I'm working on done. Also as I tend to deal with Captains and engineers who often have been at it for awhile they still use the terms I am used to (Ranger units for example) because that is still what they are to them, quite a few still refer to it as the California Division of Forestry.

Feel free to update or correct the info I pass on to others about CDF, I have a passing familiarity with CDF from closely working with the Sced B side, but since I don't work for CDF I don't always have the whole story, or the latest info although I try to keep up.

I only mention the 40 hour because it still puts a candidate ahead of someone with nothing and opens up the option of the USFS, BLM, NPS etc which many don't hear about, since unfortunately we do not have the excellent PR machine of CDF.