Cooperative Efforts

In a State as large and populated as California, no one emergency response agency can do it all. That is why cooperative efforts via contracts and agreements between state, federal and local agencies are essential in response to emergencies like wildland and structure fires, floods, earthquakes, hazardous material spills, and medical aids.

The CAL FIRE Cooperative Fire Protection Program staff are responsible for coordinating those agreements and contracts for the Department. It is because of these cooperative efforts that you may see fire engines and firefighters from different agencies at the scene of an emergency, working under a unified command relationship.

It is also because of these agreements that CAL FIRE may be the department responsible for providing dispatch, paramedic, fire, and rescue services in numerous cities and towns that are not designated as state responsibility throughout California.

Rural Fire Capacity (RFC) Grant

Rural Fire Capacity (RFC) Grant

The Rural Fire Capacity (RFC) Program is a Federally-funded grant program that allows California to provide local and rural fire departments with minor firefighting, training, communications and safety equipment for their volunteer firefighters. The RFC Program is not intended for major equipment (fire engines, vehicles, etc) or Capital repairs. The RFC Program has a 50/50 match requirement which means that the applying department must be able to meet the intended grant award, dollar for dollar. Awards for departments are set at a minimum of $500 with a maximum of $20,000. Amounts may be adjusted based on the grant funding available. For additional information please contact Megan Esfandiary at Megan.Esfandiary@fire.ca.gov or Matthew Sully at Matthew.Sully@fire.ca.gov

State Government

Under what is known as the California Master Mutual Aid Agreement, CAL FIRE assists other fire departments within the State when local resources are depleted and Department resources are available, regardless of the type of disaster. In turn, CAL FIRE can access the local government fire departments through the same agreement for assistance in wildland fire suppression.

The Governor's Office of Emergency Services (OES) can also request CAL FIRE assistance with non-fire emergencies when the Governor has declared a State of Emergency. Such was the case during the Northridge earthquake of 1993, Napa earthquake of 2014, floods of 1997 and the Oroville Dam incident in 2017 when CAL FIRE provided flood-fighting crews and incident management and logistical support services.

When California is under siege with wildland fires across the state and resources are stretched thin, agreements with our local government cooperators through the California Fire Assistance Agreement (CFAA) and the California Military Department provide for California National Guard resources. The local government agencies provide personnel and equipment throughout the state and the National Guard provide Fire Crews, C-130 aircraft known as Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System (MAFFS), water dropping and medical rescue helicopters, support personnel, communications equipment, and other specialized resources.

Local Government

Since the 1940s, local government entities such as cities, counties and districts have contracted with CAL FIRE to provide many forms of emergency services for their communities. CAL FIRE provides full-service fire protection to many of the citizens of California through the administration of 118 cooperative fire protection agreements in 30 of the State's 58 counties, 41 cities, 30 fire districts and 49 other special districts and service areas. As a full-service fire department CAL FIRE responds to wildland fires, structure fires, floods, hazardous material spills, swift water rescues, civil disturbances, earthquakes, and medical emergencies of all kinds. Local governments are able to utilize this diversity and experience through their contracts and agreements with the Department.

Counties

Alameda	Fresno	Merced	San Diego	Siskiyou
Alpine	Humboldt	Monterey	San Mateo	Sonoma
Amador	Lassen	Napa	Santa Clara	Tehama
Butte	Madera	Nevada	Santa Cruz	Trinity
Calaveras	Mariposa	Placer	San Luis Obispo	Tuolumne
El Dorado	Mendocino	Riverside	Shasta	Yuba

Cities

The following Cities have Cooperative Fire Protection Agreements with CAL FIRE. Cooperative Fire Protection Agreements can be for a wide variety of services depending upon a local government entities needs. CAL FIRE provides service to all the cities listed below. Service provided to cities within Riverside County is provided through cooperative agreements with Riverside County Fire. CAL FIRE provides service to Riverside County Fire through a cooperative agreement.

Auburn	Lake Elsinore	Madera	Pismo Beach	Weed
Atwater	Eastvale	Moreno Valley	Rancho Mirage	Wildomar
Banning	Grass Valley	Menifee	Redbluff	Willows
Beaumont	Gridley	Morgan Hill	Rubidoux	Yucaipa
Biggs	Highland	Norco	San Jacinto
Calistoga	Indian Wells	Oroville	St. Helena
Canyon Lake	Indio	Palm Desert	Soledad
Coachella	Jurupa Valley	Paradise	Temecula
Desert Hot Springs	La Quinta	Perris	Ukiah

Fire Protection Districts

The following Fire Protection Districts have Cooperative Fire Protection Agreements with CAL FIRE. Cooperative Fire Protection Agreements can be for a wide variety of services depending upon a local government entities needs.

Arcata	East Contra Costa	Lockwood	South Monterey
Aromas Tri County	Elk Creek	Meeks Bay	South Santa Clara County
Cachagua	Fresno County	North Sonoma	Squaw Valley
Coastside	Hamilton City	North Tahoe	Truckee
Cypress	Higgins	Pajaro Valley
Deer Springs	Kanawha	San Diego County
Diamond Spings/El Dorado	Kelseyville	South Lake County

County Service Areas

The following County Service Areas (CSA) have Cooperative Fire Protection Agreements with CAL FIRE. Cooperative Fire Protection Agreements can be for a wide variety of services depending upon a local government entities needs.

Fresno/Shaver Lake #31	Siskiyou/McCloud #4
Pajaro Dunes #1	Sonoma/Sea Ranch #40
San Mateo #1	Sonoma/Wilmar #40

Community Service Districts

The following Community Service Districts have Cooperative Fire Protection Agreements with CAL FIRE. Cooperative Fire Protection Agreements can be for a wide variety of services depending upon a local government entities needs.

Avila Beach	Morongo Valley	Yermo
Cameron Park	Newberry Springs
Dagget	North Bay Fire
Groveland	Pebble Beach
Loma Rica/Browns Valley	Rubidoux

Water Districts

The following Water Districts have Cooperative Fire Protection Agreements with CAL FIRE. Cooperative Fire Protection Agreements can be for a wide variety of services depending upon a local government entities needs.

Arrowbear County Water District	Nevada County Fire Planner
Butte County-Enhanced Hazard Abatement	Ramona MWD
Metropolitan Water District

Others

Firenet Lassen	Sierra-Sac Valley EMS
Northstar	Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital
Shasta-Tehama-Trinity Joint College District

Wildland Fire Agreements

The following Cities have Wildland Fire Protection Agreements with CAL FIRE. These agreements augment existing city fire department resources specifically for wildland fire fighting services.

Anaheim	Jurupa Valley	Redlands
Beaumont	Lake Elsinore	Rocklin
Calimesa	Lincoln	Shasta Lake
Chino	Loma Linda	Tiburon
Chino Valley Independent	Murrieta	Truckee
Colton	Rancho Cucamonga	Wildomar

Federal Government

The largest of CAL FIRE's cooperative programs involves an agreement for the exchange of fire protection services with the five federal wildland fire agencies, which includes the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), National Parks Service (NPS) Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), and United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The purpose of the CFMA is to improve efficiency by having access to federal personnel, equipment, supplies, services, information throughout the United States to help in times of disaster, when Department resources are depleted. In turn, CAL FIRE provides assistance, through interstate compact agreements to the federal and other state wildfire agencies throughout the nation. This agreements focus is on wildland fires, but if an all-hazard emergency or disaster is Presidentially‐Declared the CFMA is an avenue to utilize our federal cooperators. Additionally, having the closest agency respond to a wildfire, regardless of jurisdiction better service the citizens of California and the CAL FIRE mission.

Conservation Camp Program

CAL FIRE is currently authorized to operate 30 Conservation Camps statewide that house nearly 3,040 inmates and wards. These camps are operated in conjunction with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). Through these cooperative efforts CAL FIRE is authorized to operate 152 fire crews year-round. These crews are available to respond to all types of emergencies including wildfires, floods, search and rescue, and earthquakes. When not responding to emergencies, the crews are busy with conservation and community service work projects for state, federal, and local government agencies. Fire crews perform several million hours of emergency response each year, and more on work projects.

In CNR there are 16 camps for a total of 81 allocated crews

In CSR there are 14 camps for a total of 71 allocated crews

Crew Program

The CAL FIRE Crew Program operates in conjunction with the California Conservation Corps (CCC) and the California National Guard (CNG) to staff Fire Crews in accordance with their respective master interagency agreements. CAL FIRE is currently authorized to operate 16 CAL FIRE Firefighter Crews, 24 CCC Fire Crews, 4 Parolee Fire Crews and 13 CNG Fire Crews, providing a total of 1,428 firefighters statewide. These crews are available to respond to all types of emergencies including wildfires, floods, search and rescue, and earthquakes. When not responding to emergencies, the crews engage in hazardous fuels reduction and prescribed fire project work to protect the community and resources of California.

Contract Counties

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) is responsible for fire protection within State Responsibility Areas (SRA). SRA is found in 56 of California's 58 counties and totals more than 31 million acres.

In most cases SRA is protected directly by CAL FIRE, however, in Kern, Los Angeles, Marin, Orange, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, SRA fire protection is provided by the counties under contract with CAL FIRE. Known as "Contract Counties", they protect 3.4 million acres of SRA.

Under this agreement, Contract Counties are responsible for providing initial attack response to fires on SRA within their counties. CAL FIRE provides funding to the six counties for prevention and suppression of wildland fire on the SRA. This funding provides fire protection services including salary and wages of suppression crews, maintenance of firefighting facilities, pre-fire management positions, special repairs, and administrative services. Currently, the state funds 68 fire stations, 82 fire engines, 12 bulldozers, 10 fire prevention officers, and positions within the 6 emergency command centers of the six counties.

CAL FIRE continues to provide other services to Contract Counties including urban forestry grants, resource management assistance, fire investigation support, and training.

Select a Language