Volunteer firefighter Driver training at Copper Fire

Over the past few weeks you may have noticed and increase in fire vehicles about town and at Copper Fire running through their paces on a cone track as well as quite a bit of water flowing from engines and tenders at Town Square. This was all in preparation to serve you, the community.

The class was a Driver Operator 1A for county volunteer firefighters, taught by Battalion Chief Jim Toy of both Copper and Murhpys Fire.

Volunteers from West Point, San Andreas, Central Fire, Sutter Creek, Murphys, and Altaville-Melones participated in the driver operator course. The course, taught by Battalion Chief Jim Toy a volunteer with Copper Fire and Murhys, consisted of 40 hours of defensive driving - 16 hours behind the wheel - and an additional 16 hours on basic pump operations. 

A cone course was set up at Copper Fire for the city street portion of the behind the wheel course whereas approximately 40 acres of rugged wildland in the backhills of Copper was used for the behind the wheel training for wildland.

Pump training occurred at Town Square.

The prospective drivers learned to maneuver through makeshift city streets, around hills, over knolls, through cattle and down water slicked slopes. All in an effort to become familiar with their vehicle in relatively realistic city and wild land settings. The importance of knowing their engine and its capabilities was pushed home by wild land instructors Engineer Jay Lange and Captain Terry Billings as they put the drivers and their engines through the ropes.

Upon completion of the course the volunteers could receive a firefighter endorsement or a Class B license. 

Many volunteers utilized a retiring CFPD Engine for training so as not to reduce the amounts of engines their own fire departments had in use that day.

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