Congress appropriates $269k to LTCC for crucial Fire Academy training equipment

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Lake Tahoe Community College (LTCC) will receive $269,000 to purchase crucial equipment and training materials for its Lake Tahoe Basin Fire Academy. The funds are a result of congressional appropriation championed by United States Senators Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla in the federal spending bill.

“This funding will ensure that our Fire Academy cadets are best prepared for real-world situations and are well trained to use the latest firefighting apparatus, equipment, and tools no matter what fire service, agency, or station they end up employed with after graduation,” said LTCC President Jeff DeFranco. “We’re truly grateful to our state’s two senators for understanding the critical nature of our funding request and for supporting it.”

To date, over 350 cadets have graduated from the academy, many of whom are

employed with various municipal agencies in the Tahoe Basin, with seasonal wildland fire services, and with state and federal agencies including the USDA Forest Service and CAL FIRE.

The funding headed to LTCC for the program comes at a time when the threat of fire is a major concern throughout the west as well as Lake Tahoe. More than 4.3 million acres burned in California in 2020, followed by a destructive 2021. During the last wildfire season, 10,000 structures were destroyed and 31 lives were lost. The South Lake Tahoe community is all too aware of the Caldor Fire in 2021 and Angora Fire in 2007.

“Fire prevention and response is one of the highest priorities for our community and for LTCC,” said DeFranco. “We’ve responded to this clear need through investments in programs in Fire Science, Forestry, and Environmental Science. This new funding will help support all these critical programs and
the educational needs of the firefighters who graduate out of them.”

Since launching in 2007, the Lake Tahoe Basin Fire Academy at LTCC has provided cadets with all-risk fire training including wildland fire, hazardous materials, ice rescue, ventilation training, and other experiential learning services.

“These graduates are vital to keeping the Tahoe community safe, and they will help California to address its anticipated workforce shortages over the next 10 years, particularly in the areas of fire prevention, mitigation, and firefighting,” said DeFranco. “They are the ones who will do the hard work to protect our state from the growing dangers of fire, and they deserve the highest quality trainings and most modern equipment we can provide them with.”

In 2020, LTCC invested in a two-story mobile training tower that allows cadets in the program to train in multiple and varied environments, and to perform specific rescue functions. This new congressional funding will allow LTCC to add a mobile ventilation training unit to the mix, along with a mobile air compressor, extractors, and a new utility vehicle capable of towing the two training elements to various locations in Douglas, Alpine, and El Dorado counties.

“This urgently-needed funding will enable the Lake Tahoe Basin Fire Academy to upgrade necessary equipment and provide training opportunities for cadets to learn the skills necessary to perform safe rescues,” said LTCC’s Dean of Workforce Development and Instruction Brad Deeds.

The new mobile ventilation training unit will allow cadets to learn skills around proper sounding, cutting, and ventilation techniques that lessen the heat and smoke in structure fires. The new unit also teaches cadets how to breach various kinds of buildings when access is limited due to locked doors and windows and helps cadets understand how to ensure safe rescues out of garages, kennels, farm buildings, and other rural structures, along with urban buildings and homes.

This equipment will help cadets prepare for wildfires in urban areas, and in areas where urban housing meets wildland vegetation. It will also help cadets to learn how to contain fire spread between homes and into vegetation areas, which is crucial to the Tahoe Basin and its mixed-use geography.

Work continues to bring a Public Safety Training Center to the LTCC campus in the future.

For more information about the Lake Tahoe Basin Fire Academy at LTCC, visit www.ltcc.edu/fire. New students who wish to start the program in Fall 2022 will need to attend a mandatory summer orientation.