- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Volunteers sought for effort to staff Cal Fire tower on Mt. Konocti
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – In the midst of this year's extraordinary fire season, officials are looking to begin restaffing the Mt. Konocti fire lookout and are asking interested community members to consider volunteering.
Cal Fire Battalion Chief Greg Bertelli said Cal Fire is working with the Forest Fire Lookout Association to reestablish monitoring at the tower, which sits atop one of Mt. Konocti's peaks.
The Forest Fire Lookout Association reported on its Web site, www.ffla-ccwr.org , that the Mt. Konocti lookout tower originally was located at an Army receiving station, with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection – now known as Cal Fire – relocating the tower to its current location in 1977.
Bertelli said the lookout – which is owned by Cal Fire but which sits in the midst of the Mt. Konocti County Park – was last regularly staffed in 2002.
But in the wake of this year's massive wildland fires, Cal Fire is looking to return to using the lookout, which Bertelli said is a well-established and traditional tool that will augment newer technologies.
Staffing the lookout will require a number of volunteers, and so Bertelli said community members who have an interest in participating as asked to take part in a September training.
The training will take place on Saturday, Sept. 12, and Sunday, Sept. 13, at the Cal Fire Kelsey-Cobb fire station, located at 8948 Highway 175, Kelseyville.
Bertelli said the goal is that after the training Cal Fire will have a list of volunteers from which it can draw to keep the lookout active on a regular basis.
“We’d like to staff it every day, but it will depend on how many volunteers we have,” he said.
Bertelli said Cal Fire began staffing the tower again after the Rocky and Jerusalem fires began.
He said the lookout helped them detect smoke from inside the two fire burn areas – more than 94,500 acres combined – so they could distinguish it from new fires. That prevented full wildland dispatches of several engines being sent out because of smoke in the established perimeters.
Lookouts help identify new fires, record wind direction and humidity, and gather other valuable information that is key to determining how to respond to a wildland fire in its earliest stages, Bertelli said.
Bertelli said he has been taking an extra aggressive approach when wildland fires start locally, calling out air and ground resources at the first confirmed signs of an incident in order to control them as quickly as possible.
Having trained fire lookouts on Mt. Konocti will help in that effort, assisting Cal Fire command personnel with making the most educated and responsible decisions when planning responses to new wildland fires, he said.
Plus, Bertelli added of the lookout volunteer program, “It’s a good way for the community to come together” and help out.
Those interested in participating in the training are asked to call the Cal Fire Kelsey-Cobb station at 707-279-4924 and leave their contact information.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.