Fire Operations

The Cal OES Operations Division under the Fire and Rescue Branch coordinates the California Fire and Rescue Mutual Aid System. The response of fire and rescue personnel and resources, through the Mutual Aid System, includes responses to major fires, earthquakes, tsunamis, hazardous materials, and other disasters.

 

Fire Operations Contacts

Vacant, Deputy Chief

North – Fire Operations

Phone: TBD

Art Torrez, Deputy Chief

South – Fire Operations

Phone: (951) 320-2106

art.torrez@pfwt.caloes.ca.gov

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Regions

Fire and Rescue Division supporting the State Fire and Rescue Mutual Aid System

https://pfwt.caloes.ca.gov/cal-oes-divisions/fire-rescue/regions

California Incident Command Certification System (CICCS)

The California Incident Command Certification System (CICCS) is a cooperative effort between the State Fire Marshal’s Office and the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, Fire and Rescue Branch. State Fire Training is a SFMO responsibility, while the movement of fire service resources throughout the state during times of emergency is the responsibility of Cal OES Fire and Rescue through the California Fire and Rescue Service Emergency Mutual Aid Plan.

The California Incident Command Certification System mission is an all-hazard qualification and certification system that enhances the ability of the State of California to deploy firefighting resources to complex and catastrophic incidents with trained and qualified personnel.

 

Fire Operations – CICCS

​Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG)

Fire Management Assistance is available to States, local and tribal governments, for the mitigation, management, and control of fires on publicly or privately owned forests or grasslands, which threaten such destruction as would constitute a major disaster. The Fire Management Assistance declaration process is initiated when a State submits a request for assistance to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Regional Director at the time a “threat of major disaster” exists. The entire process is accomplished on an expedited basis and a FEMA decision is rendered in a matter of hours.

The Fire Management Assistance Grant Program (FMAGP) provides a 75 percent Federal cost share and the State pays the remaining 25 percent for actual costs. Before a grant can be awarded, a State must demonstrate that total eligible costs for the declared fire meet or exceed either the individual fire cost threshold – which is applies to single fires, or the cumulative fire cost threshold, which recognizes numerous smaller fires burning throughout a State.

Eligible firefighting costs may include expenses for field camps; equipment use, repair and replacement; tools, materials and supplies; and mobilization and demobilization activities.

More information concerning the FMAG Program can be found on the FEMA FMAG web page:
https://www.fema.gov/fire-management-assistance-grant-program

 

​California Mutual Aid System

The California Fire Service and Rescue Emergency Mutual Aid Plan is an extension of, and supportive document to, the California Emergency Plan.

The California Fire Service and Rescue Emergency Mutual Aid Plan as we know it today, was first prepared and adopted in 1950 as Annex 3-C of the California State Civil Defense and Disaster Relief Plan. This plan has been reviewed, revised, approved, and adopted after careful consideration by the Cal OES Fire and Rescue Service Advisory Committee/FIRESCOPE Board of Directors. The Purpose of the plan is:

  • To provide for systematic mobilization, organization, and operation of necessary fire and rescue resources of the state and its political subdivisions in mitigating the effects of disasters, whether natural or man-caused.
  • To provide comprehensive and compatible plans for the expedient mobilization and response of available fire and rescue resources on a local, area, regional, and statewide basis.
  • To establish guidelines for recruiting and training auxiliary personnel to augment regularly organized fire and rescue personnel during disaster operations.
  • To provide an annually-updated fire and rescue inventory of all personnel, apparatus, and equipment in California.
  • To provide a plan and communication facilities for the interchange and dissemination of fire and rescue-related data, directives, and information between fire and rescue officials of local, state, and federal agencies.
  • To promote annual training and/or exercises between plan participants.