A 16-year-old Copperopolis resident proved he could take the heat when he attended the annual California Fire Explorer Academy in Healdsburg mid-March.
Marshall Maness, a Fire Explorer with the Copperopolis Fire Protection District, was one of 150 accepted applicants and the only representative from Calaveras County.
“It was great,” Marshall said. “I got a lot of great training and I met a lot of interesting people. It was a really militaristic academy.”
During the program, the explorers were up at 5 a.m. and in bed by 10 p.m. Each day, buses took them to a new firefighting experience. One such experience was at the Chevron refinery in Richmond, where the explorers learned how to deal with fuel fires and biohazards. The explorers also experienced a fully involved structure fire, controlled widespread wildland fires, repelled from a three-story building and performed vehicle extrication.
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