NORTH COAST, Calif. – Law enforcement from Lake, Marin, Mendocino and Napa counties as well as state and federal agencies will take part in extended remote search training exercises next week.
The training will take place from 7 a.m. to midnight on Tuesday, July 12, and Wednesday, July 13, around Lake Mendocino and the Cal Fire Station at Howard Forest, according to Lt. Shannon Barney of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.
Barney said the agencies participating in the training will include the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, the California National Guard, Cal Fire, Search and Rescue Teams from Lake, Napa, Marin, and Mendocino counties, and the US Army Corps of Engineers.
In recent years California State Wilderness Search and Rescue professionals have seen an increase in extended search and rescue missions in difficult-to-access, mountainous terrain across California. Many of these incidents have occurred in Mendocino County or in adjacent counties, Barney said.
These searches often require a large commitment of advanced search and rescue teams and significant logistical support that must be brought to the scene, according to Barney.
Barney said these search and rescue missions also are often dependent on aviation resources to insert and extract teams and to be available to provide rescue support in the event of injured searchers or lost persons.
As a result, California State Search and Rescue coordinators, with the assistance of California Office of Emergency Services, have drafted a plan or guideline to be presented to the California State Sheriff’s Association for adoption, according to Barney's report.
Part of this plan calls for a more formal plan involving air assets of cooperating agencies, such as the California National Guard and Cal Fire, to assist in deploying or extracting resources to remote areas and or to provide medical extractions (hoist) to injured subjects, either the missing/lost persons or searchers, Barney reported.
In addition to wilderness search and rescue missions the National Guard and Cal Fire can be called to assist other emergency response personnel, including law enforcement, during incidents involving emergencies or natural disasters and law enforcement missions, Barney said.
This assistance is provided as a mutual aid support system and can include: providing critical transportation of personnel, medical evacuation, general evacuation, logistical supply, and technical night search capabilities using forward looking infrared cameras, according to Barney.
Barney said this joint training effort will utilize helicopter resources and crews from the California National Guard and Cal Fire specifically to train law enforcement and search and rescue teams in the capabilities of and safe operations of their respective helicopter platforms.
These helicopters will include the National Guard CH47D Chinook, U/HH60 Blackhawk, UH72A Lakota and the Cal Fire UH1H Super Huey, Barney said.
Starting on Monday, July 11, the public will see an increase in helicopter operations regarding this training exercise in the area of Lake Mendocino, around the Ukiah Municipal Airport and on the Ridgewood Grade near the Cal Fire Station, Barney said.
For safety reasons during this training the US Army Corps of Engineers has closed the South Lake Mendocino Wildlife Area, including all hiking trails east of the Lake Mendocino Dam to the general public. These areas will reopen on Thursday, July 14, Barney said.
Local, regional law enforcement agencies plan training at Lake Mendocino, Howard Forest
- Lake County News reports
- Posted On