By Jim Reece - The Amador County Peace Officers Association awarded its officers of the year honors for 2008, selecting Ione Community Service Officer Kevin Summers and Investigator Tom Sage. Mark Estey of the Peace Officers Association, said Tom Sage was raised in the county and eventually became a Deputy Sheriff with the Amador County Sheriff's Office. A few years later he was hired by the Amador County District Attorney's Office as a criminal investigator. Sage won the 2008 Peace Officer of the Year Award. Kevin Summers has worked as a CSO-community service officer for Jackson and Ione Police Department. Summers said he is currently a Community Service Officer at the Ione Police Department and also works part time as a CSO for the Jackson Police Department. He said he wanted to thank both of his chiefs at the two departments, also with the Peace Officers Association for the award. He said he felt proud in getting the award. Summers has been a Community Service Officer for 13 years. He does traffic control full time for the schools in Ione and works part time doing traffic control at Jackson special events, such as fireworks displays and Dandelion Days.

In statewide news: firefighters on Sunday were given a welcome boost by cooler, damper weather as they battled a vast blaze ravaging Santa Barbara County, but were anxiously watching forecasts that call for a quick return to high, dry temperatures. "We've got a window here with the humid weather that's really helping us," said Dixie Dies, spokeswoman for the state Incident Management Team. "But we know we're in this for the long haul." Moist air currents from the ocean cooled temperatures in Santa Barbara to the high 70s Sunday, helping fire crews keep the four-day-old blaze from spreading. It was less than a third contained Sunday afternoon. Temperatures were forecast to start climbing Monday, reaching the 90s by Thursday, and the "monsoonal sweeps" - winds that pick up moisture from the ocean - are expected to dissipate and the air to dry out, Dies said. So far, the fire has consumed 13 square miles of Los Padres National Forest and has placed nearly 2,700 homes in jeopardy. Officials have ordered mandatory evacuations for hundreds of those homes, and issued warnings for others farther from the fire's path, though Dies did not have an exact breakdown. Firefighting crews have made good progress in controlling the fire's eastern and southern flanks, but flames moved aggressively to the west and northwest early Sunday, according to a statement from the Santa Barbara Ranger District. Officials decided Sunday that the nearly 1,200 firefighters, who come from 22 states and the District of Columbia, are sufficient to combat the blaze, Dies said. "They're working incredibly hard," she said. Sunday's cooler weather also helped firefighters advance on a two-week-old blaze that has destroyed 22 homes in Big Sur, at the northern end of the Los Padres forest. 330 other fires continue to burn in northern California, the largest of which is the Basin Complex or the Big Sur Fire which had burned approximately 74,500 acres as of Sunday.

A new Ione fire station is scheduled for groundbreaking this morning and will be completed in February or March of 2009. This additional facility will enable quick emergency response to both sides of the city that is divided by the Sutter Creek Bridge. The Ione City Council spent many months working out the details of the new station, which fire officials say will be a welcome tool in helping to improve and expand Ione’s fire department. According to city manger Kim Kerr, the design of the new fire house includes fire suppression sprinklers, a facility for waste oil, a trash collection site, and vinyl floor coverings. The total cost for construction is close to 2 million dollars. The new station will be located at 600 Preston Avenue in Ione. City council members will be in attendance to view the beginning of construction. The community is encouraged to attend the ceremony. The ground breaking will be held at 9 a.m.

District Attorney Todd Riebe announced yesterday that John Daniel Griffin, a former California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation correctional officer, or CDCR, was convicted of three misdemeanor counts of worker’s compensation fraud in Amador County Superior Court. On June 19th, Griffin was sentenced to 120 days in jail, ordered to pay over 57,000 dollars, and placed on five years formal probation. Griffin, 53, of Ione, allegedly concealed a pre-existing disability when seeking employment with CDCR at Mule Creek State Prison. While employed he made worker’s compensation claims and received worker’s compensation benefits for alleged injuries to his shoulder, foot and leg. While on paid leave, Griffin was observed performing physical activities inconsistent with his injury claims, including loading and unloading lumber and heavy bags of cement while exhibiting no pain, riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, playing golf and carrying three large cases of motor oil. It is also alleged that the defendant knowingly concealed his employment as a firefighter while on paid leave from CDCR. This case was a joint investigation between the CDCR’s Worker’s Compensation Fraud High impact Team and the Amador County Worker’s Compensation Fraud unit, which investigates fraud cases in Amador, Placer and Calaveras County through a grant provided by the California Department of Insurance.

A severe lightning storm started a number of fires in nearby counties over the past weekend, but Amador County went relatively unscathed. Minor fires broke out in Amador’s higher elevations, although these were small-scale blazes compared to those in neighboring counties. Approximately 23 wild land fires dotted Calaveras and El Dorado Counties as a result of Saturday’s lightning storm. The primary fires of concern were the 30-acre Soldier fire, located 3 miles northeast of Pollock Pines and north of Highway 50, and the 20-acre Capps fire halfway between Highway 50 and Highway 88 in the vicinity of the Capps Crossing campground. The Soldier fire threatened homes and a Natural Research Area. Both of these fires were contained by Sunday. Meanwhile, firefighters across Northern California have been battling merciless fires that have been feeding off the bone-dry landscape. Along California’s Coast, three massive wildfires have been contained. A 23,000 acre fire that has destroyed 50 homes has yet to be contained in Humboldt County; a 4000 acre blaze is approaching containment in Napa County, and a 600 acre fire burns in Santa Cruz. As a result of the statewide blazes, local air quality is at a poor level. Amador’s Air Quality District is advising more sensitive groups to take caution because of the high particulate levels in the local air.

By Jim Reece - Driving Under the Influence charges were filed after two crashes this weekend on Amador County Roads, including one with major injuries. The Amador Unit of the CHP reported arrests in both cases. CHP said at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Mathew Marton, 26, of Turlock was driving a 1993 GMC pickup truck while intoxicated at a high rate of speed on Campo Seco Road, west of Watertown Road. Due to his intoxication, Marton failed to negotiate a curve in the road, and the front wheels of his truck left the road and the vehicle hit a tree. His passenger, Tresa Giannini, of Sutter Creek, suffered major injuries. Both extricated themselves and flagged down a passing motorist. They were taken to Sutter Amador Hospital and Marton was arrested for felony DUI. At CHP reported another DUI arrest 9:15 p.m. Sunday. Preston E. Vanslochteren, 52, of Ione, was riding his 2004 Harley Davidson motorcycle west bound on Reservation Road, east of Camanche Road. Due to his intoxication, he allowed the motorcycle to drift off the paved portion of the road and into the drainage gully, where the motorcycle flipped, throwing off the rider. CHP responded and arrested Vanslochteren for DUI and booked him into the Amador County Jail.

News data from CAL FIRE helps to reiterate the strain that statewide fires have placed on local firefighting services. Since the late June lighting storms began sparking blazes across Northern California, the Amador El Dorado Unit of CAL FIRE has sent over ninety personnel, eleven engines and eight hand crews to help fight hundreds of wildfires. The Amador El Dorado Unit is budgeted to staff 13 fire engines normally, but by freezing everyone on duty, the unit is staffing 19 fire engines. Only five fire engines remain in the home unit to protect over a million acres. Eight out of nine local fire crews have been on assignment statewide for weeks. As a result, the Amador Unit formed two ad hoc hand crews using engine company firefighters to protect our local area and keep another major fire from erupting. In addition, CAL FIRE has hired several local fire district engine companies to staff our state fire stations. The personnel sent to assist with the fires are assigned to frontline firefighting or supporting major firefighting operations. Local firefighters provide a variety of support roles that range from mixing and loading air tanker retardant, supervising the inmate crews staffing mobile kitchens, repairing fire engines, and providing training and support to the military personnel and aircraft that have come to CAL FIRE’s assistance. For More information on the many fires burning statewide, including counties declared as disasters by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, go to www.fire.ca.gov.

According to a new report, the large number of people moving to very high fire hazard areas of the Sierra is leading to more wildfires, more taxpayer expense, and more loss of life. The population of the Sierra Nevada range is expected to triple by the year 2040, and new research by the Sierra Nevada Alliance finds that 94 percent of the land slated for rural residential development is classified as very high or extreme fire hazard by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or CalFire. “The combination of population growth and climate change in our region is creating a ‘perfect firestorm’ where increasing numbers of people and homes will be at greater risk of catastrophic wildfire,” says report author and Alliance Land Use Coordinator Autumn Bernstein. The reports findings include statistics on population growth and recommendations for more responsible community planning in rural areas where fire-fighting resources are scarce. Of the many reasons cited as causes for increasing fire danger, unsafe growth patterns, climate change and decades of fire suppression and logging are considered the top culprits. The report also blames current policy framework and taxpayer subsidies for unsafe growth. Repeated throughout are what the Alliance considers to be the detrimental effects of rampant population growth. Although considerably smaller in scale compared to surrounding counties, Amador County’s population in very high or extreme fire threat areas grew by 3,400 between 1990 and 2000, a 14 percent increase. 100 percent of our counties rural residential land lies within very high or extreme fire threat areas. Proposed solutions include making developers pay their own way, clustering development around existing communities, managing forest landscapes, and improving planning and budgeting processes. But according to Bill Fulton, a California planning expert, these solutions are only temporary. “The fact is that 32 million Californians live in a tinderbox, and with a half-million more per year on the way, it’s impossible to change the situation – unless public officials and the voters who elect them decide they’re willing to pass regulations that would keep people from building in the woods.” The Sierra Nevada Alliance is a network of conservation groups that are based or work in the Sierra Nevada region.

A recent report issued through the Amador Fire Safe Council revealed some interesting statistics in terms of what causes fires in Amador County. Until recently, relatively little information was available and most fire officials based their information on past causes and statewide trends, with the assumption that the majority of blazes are caused by burning debris. Fire officials are using the new statistics to study trends from year to year and to determine the effectiveness of laws that limit potential fire starters, like fireworks. According to Cathy Koos-Brazeal of the Amador Fire Safe Council, the impetus of most local fires is divided more evenly amongst a broad set of categories. The statistics were compared between two Pine Grove fire districts, Battalions 3 and 4, for the 2006 season. While debris burning was the number one cause of fires in battalion 3’s area east of Pine Grove, it was last on the list for Battalion 4 west of Pine Grove. The causes of fire in Battalion 3’s district, in descending order, were debris burning, electrical power, equipment use, smoking, lightning, vehicles, playing with fire and miscellaneous. In Battalion 4’s area, they were vehicle, arson, equipment use, electrical power, miscellaneous, playing with fire, smoking, campfires and debris burning. These two very different sets of statistics prove that the causes of fire can vary widely even in two similar fire districts, said Koos-Brazeal. Council Chairperson Jim Simmons thinks these statistics prove a point. “Contrary to some people’s opinion, most people obey the law without law enforcement looking over their shoulders. If we were to allow fireworks in unincorporated areas, we would be increasing the risk of fireworks caused fires substantially and profiting from that increased risk,” he said. The Amador Fire Safe Council and other local agencies will continue to build upon these statistics and in turn create a better understanding of trends in Amador County.

Via Staff Report - Rancho Arroyo Seco has pledged to donate up to 10,000 dollars for the second annual fundraiser for the City of Ione Fire Department. Organizers said this year's goal is to raise $20,000 or more. In support of this goal, Rancho Arroyo Seco will match the first $10,000 in community donations. Donations will be used to purchase new structural fire protection gear for the department. With last year's donations of $17,060, the department was able to replace 50 sets of wildland fire protection gear. The department of 45 is a well-trained volunteer force that supports the City of Ione and surrounding areas. Hosted by Rancho Arroyo Seco, the event will be held on Friday, October 24th in the Big Red Barn located on the Ranch property on Highway 104 across from the entrance to Mule Creek State Prison. Ranch partner Bill Bunce said "Rancho Arroyo Seco is very pleased to be a part of this event. Last year was such a success due to the generosity of this community." Sharon Long of Arroyo Seco said this has been a difficult year for firefighters throughout the state. On average, the Ione Fire Department responds to 65 to 90 calls a month including all types of fires to medical aids, search and rescue and many types of public assistance. All of this is done voluntarily, on a limited budget and free to the people who live in and around Ione.