1,200 Apply Early To Join Cal Fire Force For Upcoming Wildfire Season
MORGAN HILL (KPIX 5) – While the calendar says February, Cal Fire is getting an early start on making sure it has enough staff to battle this year's wildfires.
One by one, applicants walked in to Cal Fire headquarters in Morgan Hill for their job interviews wearing business suits. What they really want to wear are fire coats, helmets and goggles, battling wildfires up and down the state this summer.
"The fire service is a great thing to be a part of," Cal Fire applicant Everett Kemp told KPIX 5. "It's good training, good experience and gives you a good adrenaline rush."
About 1,200 applied to become firefighters. Three hundred are getting interviews, but only a very select few will get a job.
"Of these 300 people coming in today, we're probably going to offer about 20 of them a job," said Cal Fire battalion chief Jim Crawford.
It's only February, but the drought in California is like a time machine set to fast-forward to the fire season, so Cal Fire had to move its schedule up too.
"Part of it is the drought. Definitely had an effect on that, so we are a week or two ahead of schedule where we had been in the past," Crawford said.
The ominous signs are already there. On Monday, a tree went up like a torch after a grass fire along Interstate 680 in San Jose. Last month, a wildfire burned through acres of brush to threaten homes in Pacifica.
"Help our state, help our people and even at times help our country, because we do travel to other states and help out there as well," said Cal Fire applicant Micah McConnell.