The United Professional Fire Fighters of Contra Costa County Local 1230 is deeply saddened to announce the death of one of its long time members in the line of duty. Captain John Nunes, who served more than three decades with the Contra Costa Fire Protection District died in the morning of March 31 from leukemia.
With the shadow of another difficult fire season looming over California, a silver lining may be shining our way, courtesy of the federal stimulus plan. California Professional Firefighters is aggressively moving to secure sizeable portions of the stimulus money for long-delayed priorities, including staffing and equipment.
Some 150 CPF local affiliate leaders brought the message from the front lines directly in the halls of the State Capitol this week, at CPF’s Daniel A. Terry Legislative Conference. The two-day conference brought lawmakers face-to-face with firefighters from their home districts, and put firefighters in touch with the key players in Sacramento.
There have already been twice as many wildland fires in the first three months of 2009 as there had been during the same period in 2008. And that's the good news. According to two reports -- one federal and one state -- California and the rest of the nation should brace for another bad fire year in 2009, and that, down the road, the state could see fire losses average $2 billion a year.
California’s new Emergency Management Agency (Cal-EMA) has joined with labor and management to reject efforts to impose an inadequate physical ability test on both incoming and incumbent firefighters. In a joint statement, Cal-EMA, CPF and CalChiefs conclude that the National Wildfire Coordinating Group’s “Pack Test” can’t and shouldn’t be used as a “fit for duty” test.