Howard Forest Station is a

CAL Fire The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) is the fire department of the California Natural Resources Agency in the U.S. state of California. It is responsible for fire protection in various areas under state responsibi ...

station and emergency command center (ECC) in

Mendocino County, California Mendocino County (; ''Mendocino'', Spanish language, Spanish for "of Antonio de Mendoza, Mendoza) is a County (United States), county located on the North Coast (California), North Coast of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United Sta ...

, located along

U.S. Route 101 U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, on the West Coast of the United States. It is also known as (The Royal Roa ...

and south of the city of Willits. The Howard Forest ECC serves as a secondary public safety answering point (PSAP) for fire and emergency medical services in largely unincorporated Mendocino County. The compound is also the location of the Howard Forest

Helitack Helitack crews are teams of wildland firefighters who are transported by helicopter to wildfires. Helicopters provide rapid transport, enabling helitack crews to quickly respond and assess a wildfire situation. Helitack crews may land near a wi ...

Base and serves as the

headquarters Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the to ...

of the Mendocino Ranger Unit.

History

Forest Fire Station

Howard Forest covers a initial attack response area that contains over of state land, and over of

US Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...

and

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's la ...

lands. Two

fire engines The Fire Engines were a post-punk band from Edinburgh, Scotland. The Fire Engines were an influence on many bands that followed, including Franz Ferdinand and The Rapture, with Meat Whiplash and The Candyskins both taking their names from Fire ...

respond from Howard Forest station during peak fire season, each staffed with a crew of three (one officer, two firefighters.) Assigned to the facility are three fire captains, three fire apparatus engineers and ten seasonal firefighters.

Helitack Base

The Howard Forest Helitack Base crew includes two pilots, four

fire captain Captain is a rank in various fire services. In most American and Canadian fire services, a captain ranks above a lieutenant and below a battalion chief, and therefore two grades above a regular firefighter. This varies, though, between departments ...

s, two Fire Apparatus Engineers and twelve seasonal firefighters. This crew staffs a UH-1 H helicopter with

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

Copter 101. The helitack crew logs an average of 412 flight hours per year and responds to both fires and medical emergencies. When CAL Fire began to develop a helitack program in 1970, it was decided that helitack bases would be established in areas where they could most easily protect high-value timberlands and critical

watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...

areas in

northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ra ...

and central California. Subsequently two bases were created for Mendocino County and the surrounding area to protect the high-value timber industry in this region. Starting in 1972, the first was located at Laytonville Fire Station, with call sign Copter 101. The second was an Evergreen contract Bell 205A1 (50 Romeo) starting in 1977 at CDF's Howard Forest Fire Station near the town of Willits, California, with call sign of Copter 100. Copter 100 performed the first rope rappelling at Howard Forest, and demonstrated the value and function of the Medium Helicopter for California firefighting. In 1981, Laytonville helitack moved and Copter 101 established at its current location at Howard Forest; Copter 100 and its helitack crew was disbanded. Laytonville's helipad and fueling facilities are still maintained as a secondary base and mid-mission refueling location.

Emergency Command Center

In addition to all CAL Fire units within the county, Howard Forest is also responsible for dispatching multiple local entities including 19 Local Government Fire Agencies, 7 Ambulance Agencies, REHIT Hazardous Materials Team, and BLM Law Enforcement in Lake and Mendocino Counties.

References

External links

*
Short information sheet about Howard Forest helitack from the State of California website
{{coord, 39.34587, -123.31900, display=title Buildings and structures in Mendocino County, California Wildfire suppression facilities Government of Mendocino County, California Firefighting in California