By ALISHA WYMAN

The Union Democrat

Firefighters have started training for the 2008 fire season, as Cal Fire prepares to increase the number of engines next week that serve Tuolumne and Calaveras counties.

Regional officials have granted Tuolumne-Calaveras Unit Chief Mike Noonan's request to start staffing 15 engines in the two counties.

That number is up from six that now serve the area.

The May 5 rehire is earlier than usual, but not before last year's date, Cal Fire-Tuolumne County Fire Department Battalion Chief Julie Henriques said.

"We're getting ahead of the power curve here because of the conditions," she said.

The area is starting the season with little rain since February and gusty winds, she said.

Six more engines will join the firefighting force when peak fire season begins, tentatively on July 1, Henriques said.

In the meantime, 75 firefighters are brushing up on their training, for three days that began Monday, at the county's Emergency Operations Center on Striker Court.

"We are preparing, and one of the key elements to that preparation is having the firefighters trained and ready to operate those engines," said Dennis Townsend, fire prevention bureau chief for the Tuolumne-Calaveras Unit.

The unit includes Tuolumne, Calaveras, eastern Stanislaus and eastern San Joaquin counties.

After the training, they will go to their assigned stations and begin further training there, Cal Fire Training Capt. Jim Toy said.

The unit has not yet heard word if the state will provide a fourth firefighter on engines like last year, Townsend said.

Local units could be called to Southern California at some time during the season, where a drought last winter has left dry conditions, he said

The fire season in the area is already heating up as well.

Since January, 150 acres have burned in more than 50 wildland fires. Most of them were debris burn-pile escapes, Townsend said.

Fire fuels are 15 percent dryer than last year at this time, Toy said.

Friday evening, a debris burn escaped on Sawmill Flat Road in the Columbia area torched a van, a truck, a shop full of tools and a boat, said Steve Gregory, the Tuolumne County Fire Department spokesman.

It was one of a couple fires unit-wide over the weekend.

The season has been windier than usual, Townsend said, and he expects the gusty weather to continue through August.

"That is the driving force of a worse-than-normal fire season," he said.

Gregory agreed, asking residents to refrain from burning on windy days regardless of the burn day status.

"We just encourage everybody to be real careful until burn season's over," he said.

Residents should stay near the burn and keep tools and water nearby to suppress any fire that may escape.

Fire officials said every home should have 100 feet of defensible space around it.

Starting Thursday, Cal Fire will require burn permits and restrict burning hours to between 7 p.m. and 8 a.m.

Should the season continue without rain, the unit officials will suspend burning all together May 12.