California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection - Operational Units

Operational Units

Operational Units are organizations designed to address fire suppression over a geographic area. They vary widely in size and terrain.

For example, Lassen-Modoc-Plumas Operational Unit encompasses three rural counties and consists of eight fire stations, one Helitack Base, three conservation camps and an inmate firefighter training center. Fire suppression resources include 13 front-line fire engines, 1 helicopter, 3 bulldozers and 14 inmate fire crews. The unit shares an interagency emergency command center with federal agencies including the US Forest Service, National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management. An interagency center contributes to economies of scale, supports cooperation, and lends itself to a more seamless operation. The area has fragmented jurisdictions across a large rural area along the Nevada and Oregon state lines.

Riverside Operational Unit by itself is one of the largest fire departments in the nation, with 95 fire stations and about 230 pieces of equipment. The Riverside Operational Unit operates the Riverside County Fire Department under contract as well operates eighteen city fire departments and one community services district fire department. Nine of these stations belong to the state, with rest owned by the respective local government entity. The unit operates its own emergency command center in Perris. Terrain served includes urban and suburban areas of the Inland Empire and communities in the metropolitan Palm Springs area. The area includes forested mountains, the Colorado River basin, the Mojave Desert and Interstate 10.

Northern Region-

• Mendocino Unit
• San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit
• Santa Clara Unit (including Contra Costa, Alameda, Santa Clara and parts of San Joaquin, and Stanislaus Counties)
• Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit (including Colusa, Yolo and Solano Counties)
• Humboldt-Del Norte Unit
• Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit (Including Sutter and Sierra Counties)
• Lassen-Modoc-Plumas Unit (Including Plumas County as of June 2008)
• Amador-El Dorado Unit (Including Sacramento and Alpine Counties)
• Shasta-Trinity Unit
• Siskiyou Unit
• Tehama-Glenn Unit
• Butte Unit

Southern Region-

• San Luis Obispo Unit
• San Diego Unit (Including Imperial County)
• San Bernardino Unit (Including Inyo and Mono Counties)
• Riverside Unit
• Fresno-Kings Unit
• Madera-Mariposa-Merced Unit
• San Benito-Monterey Unit
• Tulare Unit
• Tuolumne-Calaveras Unit (Including portions of San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Alpine counties)

The counties of Marin, Kern, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles and Orange are paid by Cal Fire to provide fire protection to state responsibility areas within those counties rather than Cal Fire providing direct fire protection, and are commonly known as the "Contract Counties".

Lawmakers in Sacramento have mandated that every Operational Unit develop and implement an annual fire management plan. The plan will develop cooperation and community programs to reduce damage from, and costs of, fires in California. One metric used by fire suppression units is initial attack success: fires stopped by the initial resources, (equipment and people,) sent to the incident.