COMMUNITY NEWS
Cal Fire CZU Chief Welcomes Volunteers
C
“Dependable Service, Affordable Quality”
By Jondi Gumz
al Fire CZU Chief Nate Armstrong, who is new in that post, welcomes volunteers. “We always need more volunteers!” he told the Times via email. “To be totally honest, they’re getting to be harder and harder to keep just due to life’s demands but we always appreciate the help with recruiting however we can. Santa Cruz County Volunteers in training. Fire Battalion Chief Jed When does that training take place? Wilson explains who can volunteer, where, For the Fire Academy it takes and everything in between. place on weekends and on Wednesday How many volunteers do you have now? How does that compare with pre-pandemic? evenings. Once completed with the We have a roster of 75 volunteer fire- Academy, volunteer trainings are held fighters within the county. These numbers two weekday evenings and a Saturday have been consistent year to year, we are every month. Is there a form that people use to sign up? always looking for new volunteers and are Information on becoming a volunteer striving for a goal of around 100 volunteers. What is the motivation for your volunteers? can be found on our website, www.santacruzcountyfire.com/, the The motivation process can be found of the volunteer within the volunteer covers a wide opportunities section. spectrum. Many are We recommend that there to give back to if someone is interthe community which ested in becoming a they are a part of, live volunteer that they in, while others are visit their local county using it as a building fire station and attend block for a career in a training to get a feel the Fire Service. Volunteers work a water tender. for the opportunity. Sometimes after Is there a deadline to sign up? visiting a training, some find that it’s not Volunteers’ recruitment is a yearthe opportunity for them, but there are many other opportunities offered within round process, with an Academy being held annually around January through the communities to volunteer. These included, but are not limited April. This Academy is conducted jointly to Fire Wise Programs, Fire Safe Counsels and Community Emergency Response with a majority of the other fire agencies within Santa Cruz County. Teams (CERT). This provides the volunteers an opporHow much training is required? The medical portion is 40 hours of tunity for a wider range of instruction and instruction, and the Fire Academy is cur- working with agencies they will work with on future incidents. n rently around 330 hours of instruction.
The Fire Academy lineup, which will go through 330 hours of instruction.
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www.tpgonlinedaily.com Capitola Soquel Times / April 2022 / 13
