More than 200 train in Garberville wildfire drill, build resilience

Southern Humboldt Community Park turned into a wildfire readiness ground Sunday as more than 200 people spent the day drilling the skills that would matter first if flames push into Garberville or the hills around Redway. From 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., volunteer firefighters, students and air crews moved through hose lays, handline work, shelter deployment and aircraft coordination at the 450-acre nonprofit park.

The Briceland Volunteer Fire Department said the Wildland Readiness Drill brought together students in the Southern Humboldt Wildland Fire Academy, support personnel, instructors, members of CAL FIRE’s Humboldt-Del Norte Unit, the Kneeland Helitack crew aboard Copter 604 and the REACH Air Medical helicopter team. The point was not just refreshers. Briceland Fire said the exercise was designed to sharpen operational decision-making, coordinated field operations, interoperability, standardized practices and firefighter safety, the same skills that determine whether a rural response holds together when a fire starts fast and access is limited.

For Southern Humboldt, the drill also showed who is likely to respond first. In a fire season shaped by steep terrain and long stretches between major stations, the first wave is still the local volunteer fire network, then regional partners and air support that have to work together immediately. Briceland Fire described the exercise as one of the largest cooperative wildland refresher events of its kind, built through years of collaboration among volunteer departments and regional agencies.

The park itself gave the drill a wider community frame. Southern Humboldt Community Park says it works with Wailaki partner organizations, including Eel River Wailaki, to celebrate culture and support environmental health. That history matters here: a 2023 cultural burn at the park was described as the first cultural burn in southern Humboldt in more than 150 years. It is a reminder that fire in this landscape is not new, even if the conditions now are harsher.

The Southern Humboldt Fire Safe Council says decades of fire suppression and logging have raised fuel loads, while climate change has made wildfire conditions worse. Funding for Sunday’s drill came from Humboldt County Measure Z Public Safety/Essential Services, the California State Coastal Conservancy’s Wildfire Resilience Program and Redwood Region RISE California Jobs First, with support from the offices of Mike McGuire and Michelle Bushnell, the Southern Humboldt Business and Visitor’s Bureau, the Mattole Restoration Council and the park. For nearby residents, the lesson is plain: the county’s front line is practicing together now, before peak fire season tests how ready Southern Humboldt really is.