Georgetown Fire

🚒 Divide Fire Academy 26-001 | Ground Ladder Drills 🚒

On February 14, 2026, recruits with Divide Fire Academy 26-001 trained on fundamental ground ladder techniques, building the skills necessary to safely and effectively deploy ladders during emergency operations.

Training focused on both single-firefighter and two-firefighter ladder raises, emphasizing proper technique, communication, and control. Recruits also learned how to properly lock in to the ladder for stability and practiced deploying and operating fire hose from elevated positions, reinforcing balance, coordination, and safe ladder operations during fire attack.

Through repetition and hands-on instruction, recruits built confidence in their ability to safely throw, raise, and operate from ground ladders—essential skills used for rescue, ventilation, and access during structure fires and other emergencies.

Ground ladder proficiency is a foundational part of firefighter training, ensuring recruits are prepared to operate safely and effectively when their communities need them most.

🚒Divide Fire Academy 26-001 | Firefighter Rescue Drills 🚒

Firefighting is unpredictable and when conditions change, knowing how to get yourself and your partner out safely can mean everything.

On January 24, recruits with Divide Fire Academy 26-001 participated in hands-on rescue training focused on building confidence in their personal protective equipment and practicing critical self-rescue techniques.

Throughout the day, recruits rotated through challenging scenarios, including:

- Confidence Maze – building trust in their gear while navigating tight, dark, and unfamiliar spaces
- Wall Breach – practicing controlled techniques to escape obstructed areas
- Denver Prop – simulating firefighter entrapment and reinforcing coordinated self-rescue and partner-assist techniques
- Ladder Bailout – training emergency egress from elevated positions when interior conditions become unsafe

These drills are designed to prepare recruits to stay calm, think clearly, and act decisively under stress—skills that are essential to firefighter safety and survival.

As the academy continues, recruits will build on these foundational skills through increasingly complex training designed to prepare them for the realities of emergency response. Follow along as Academy 26-001 continues to progress.

🚒 Welcome to Divide Fire Academy 26-001 🚒

A new group of recruits has officially begun their journey into the fire service.

Divide Fire Academy 26-001 is a collaborative volunteer academy bringing recruits from Garden Valley Fire, Georgetown Fire, Mosquito Fire, and Rescue Fire together to train side by side. Over the coming months, these recruits will be pushed, challenged, and shaped into firefighters ready to serve their communities when it matters most. This academy is made possible by a dedicated cadre of instructors from all four agencies, committed to passing on their experience, knowledge, and high standards to the next generation of firefighters.

Throughout the academy, recruits will train in essential skills including structural firefighting, rescue operations, fire behavior, safety and survival techniques, emergency response fundamentals, and wildland firefighting. Along the way, we’ll be sharing their progress, key training milestones, and the hard work happening behind the scenes; day in and day out.

We invite you to follow along as these recruits take their first steps into the fire service, building the skills, confidence, and teamwork needed to serve their communities with professionalism, integrity, and dedication.

Prescribed fire is a critical tool for protecting communities, maintaining healthy forests, and supporting resilient landscapes. Want to learn more about prescribed fire, local fire safety initiatives, or how to get involved?

Check out these resources:
- About prescribed fires: https://readyforwildfire.org/forest-health/prescribed-fires/

- About vegetation management projects: https://www.fire.ca.gov/what-we-do/natural-resource-management/vegetation-management-program

- El Dorado County Fire Safe Council: https://www.edcfiresafe.org/

- Georgetown Divide Fire Safe Council: www.gdfsc.org

- Office of Wildfire Preparedness and Resilience: https://www.eldoradocounty.ca.gov/Public-Safety-Justice/Wildfire-Disaster/Office-of-Wildfire-Preparedness-and-Resilience

- El Dorado/Amador Prescribed Burn Association: https://calpba.org/el-dorado-amador-pba

- El Dorado Resource Conservation District: https://www.eldoradorcd.org/

- Track state fuels reduction work, in your community and throughout California: https://www.fire.ca.gov/what-we-do/natural-resource-management/fuels-reduction

Knowledge is power — stay informed and help keep our forests and communities safe