Training

A minimum of three hours per day is dedicated to “in-service” skills maintenance training. In addition, the department supports placement of personnel in off-site training to improve the capability of the department.

RRFD also values unique and specialized training opportunities and offers courses on a regular basis that challenge the skills of our personnel and that provide unique perspective to challenges the fire service faces on a daily basis.

In addition to routine paramedic training required to maintain individual certification, the department has entered into an agreement with the UCDavis Medical Center that allow our firefighter/paramedics to be challenged in a way that only a state of the art virtue reality lab can achieve.  It is this type of training experience, in concert with routine emergency room training at Woodland Health Care and UCDavis Medical  Center that we hope to maintain paramedic skill levels at the highest.     

Emergency Response

The Rumsey Rancheria Fire Department provides primary fire and paramedic medical response to the Cache Creek Casino Resort which is comprised of a 277,521 square foot casino, a 200-room hotel, a Mini-mart, the Yocha De-He Golf Course and all the associated support facilities necessary to operate the complex.

The department also provides primary response to the Tribal Housing area, consisting of more than two dozen residences, a community center and the Yocha De-He  Wintun Academy.

Through the Automatic Aid Agreement, the department provides first response fire and paramedic medical response to the Capay Valley Fire Protection District and the northern extents of the Esparto Fire District.

The department has a variety of front-line vehicles at its disposal including; two Type I Engines, one Type III Wildland Engine, one Rescue Vehicle, three Search and Rescue All Terrain Vehicles, and one Utility Vehicle.  

During the fire season, the department responds to wildland fire incidents in concert with CAL Fire and Capay Valley Fire Protection District throughout the Capay Valley, Yolo County, and the State of California.

Automatic and Mutual Aid Agreements

The Rumsey Rancheria Fire Department entered into an historic, formal Automatic Aid Agreement with the Capay Valley and Esparto Fire Districts on March 26, 2004.

This agreement sets forth the framework for each department to automatically be dispatched to the other’s calls for service.  By formalizing the Automatic Aid Agreement, the departments improved their levels of service by increasing the number of personnel on calls, while setting into motion common training and standardizing many operations.

In 2007, Rumsey Rancheria Fire Department was one of the twenty Yolo County Fire Agencies to sign an updated formal Fire Mutual Aid Agreement. This was an agreement that was initially in acted in 1962.

Then in November 2008, RRFD entered into a Search and Rescue (SAR) Automatic Aid Agreement with the Capay Valley Fire and Yolo County Sheriff’s Departments.  This agreement pools the SAR resources of the three agencies, provides for a common response protocol and training to insure efficient SAR response within the Capay Valley.

Fire Prevention

The fire chief serves as the Tribe’s fire marshal and is therefore responsible for implementation and enforcement of Tribal fire and life safety ordinances that meet the standards of the California Building and Fire Codes.  To achieve the highest level of compliance with contemporary fire and life safety standards the Tribal Council has granted the chief authority to contract with fire service plan review and new construction building inspector professionals and, on an as needed basis, fire protection engineers.

To help insure that grounds and facilities are maintained at the highest level of fire and life safety standards RRFD has implemented a company based building inspection program and firefighters also conduct fire drills in all facilities, including the casino and hotel, and provide fire safety education for the Tribal Community and Cache Creek Casino Resort employees.