The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection welcomes 40 students Monday to Mercedo County’s brand new firefighter training facility as part of a multi-year push to strengthen the workforce.
The Atwater Training Center, located at a former Air Force Base, joined three other training centres in 2025 where Cal Fire trains around 1,600 firefighters. Fully competent, Atwater will support 300 students a year and become an entry-level firefighter and company executive responsible for key operations on the field.
Students “will be able to graduate from our academy and have to arrive on the scene the next day and direct the fire,” said Nicole Gisell, CAL Fire Advisor, who helps oversee the centre’s curriculum.
The opening comes amid reports from Propublica that there are more than 4,500 federal firefighters (approximately 27%) available at the U.S. Forest Service. Earlier in the month, Gov. Gavin Newsom brought the fight to President Trump by sending his office a proposed executive order that challenged the administration to match Golden State’s investment in preparing for the fire.
The first Cal Fire training center, which has 32 students in Aeon, California, opened in 1967. Until 2017 it served as the department’s only training center. For example, Cal Fire opened Riverside, then Redding in 2023, and now Atwater in 2025.
Since 2017, the governor and state legislature have almost doubled the number of approved fire prevention jobs in the CAL fires, according to data from the California Department of Treasury. This is twice the budget for the sector, ranging from $2 billion in the 2017-18 budget to $4.2 billion in the 2024-25 budget. 90% of that is dedicated to fire prevention.
A Cal Fire spokesman said the department had 12,223 employees as of July, including seasonal firefighters. The department expects firefighter numbers to peak during the fire season around September.
“Our training program is probably one of the best in the fire service,” Gissell said.
The new Atwater Centre will house two of the seven fire leaders who teach across the four centres. Through the 10-week program, students will learn basic firefighting, fire science, leadership skills, and how to run fire equipment.
Beyond classrooms, Atwater is home to a series of buildings used for fire towers, off-road driving courses and search and rescue practices. Students will use live fires for a week.
Cal Fire actively employs entry-level firefighters, heavy machinery operators and battalion chiefs throughout the fire prevention program.
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