The Unit Citation is awarded for great courage displayed by a departmental unit in the course of conducting an operation in the face of immediate life-threatening circumstances.
Mountain Home Conservation Camp #10
Angel Jimenez
Correctional Officer
Eric Flores
Camp Commander
Storm response earns 2024 Unit Citation
After getting snowed in at Mountain Home Conservation Camp #10 in Tulare County in March 2023, two staff worked tirelessly for a week to ensure the safety and security of the incarcerated population and community.
Each day they faced significant challenges in extreme weather conditions and brought exemplary leadership and resourcefulness to each challenge.
Camp Commander Lt. Eric Flores, who had just worked a double shift, was staying the night in the camp when Officer Angel Jimenez alerted him the relieving officers could not reach the camp.
The roads to the camp were snowed in, meaning there would be no relief.
Mountain Home’s strike team was already in the San Bernardino mountains assisting other efforts. CalFire staff was also off the mountain. This meant only Flores, Jimenez and about 16 incarcerated campers were on site.
Even with everyone shoveling snow day and night, it wasn’t enough to keep up with the accumulation. Since CalFire had one front loader tractor and smaller bobcat tractor on the grounds, Jimenez, who has military training driving heavy equipment, was granted permission to operate the tractors. He was able to move large amounts of snow away from the buildings and clear the road leading to the camp.
Following snow, mudslides threatened camp
A couple days later it began to rain, causing the snow to melt, resulting in two mudslides behind the camp. The mudslides crushed the water supply lines and took out the bridge below the camp. Rain continued to fall, collapsing multiple sections of the county road leading to the camp.
Flores, Jimenez, and the incarcerated campers attempted digging out the water lines to restore their water supply. They also used wood from the sawmill to build a makeshift platform, allowing the smaller tractor to reach the mudslide. Unfortunately, the mudslide kept collapsing, preventing them from finding the line breaks. Other problems mounted include losing the camp’s phone lines and internet access while the power supply was unstable.
Making his way around the camp, Flores was able to find cellphone access points to keep CDCR administration updated.
Planning, executing camp evacuation
After a full week of being cut off, he coordinated an evacuation of camp staff and incarcerated population. To reach safety, he led them on a two-and-a-half-mile hike to different location. He later learned the road they used to evacuate collapsed the next day.
Flores was immediately assigned the task of CDCR agency representative for the state of emergency response to Tulare County’s storms. As agency representative, he attended daily meetings with the multi-agency emergency operations response. Meanwhile, he continued to monitor and direct 10 strike teams, ensuring their health and safety. He also ensured their housing, food and other needs were met while being deployed to the areas they were needed.
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