Who are the Fresno County Sheriff's 'Jeepers'?

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) - The Fresno County Sheriff's Office is inviting region residents to be the Oktoberfest fundraiser and enactment the Jeepers - but, who are they?

The Sheriff's Office's upcoming Oktoberfest volition see meal and creation connected Oct. 5 astatine 5 p.m. astatine 735 3d Street successful Clovis. The lawsuit aims to enactment the Sheriff's Jeep Rescue Unit or, arsenic they are commonly referred to, "The Jeepers."

The Jeepers, officials say, enactment the Sheriff's Office by responding to and performing duties related to hunt and rescue, fire, flood, and different disasters.

This portion consists of a radical of qualified, trained, and "mission-ready" volunteers who are on-call to respond to immoderate situation, successful immoderate weather, and astatine immoderate clip erstwhile requested by the Sheriff's Office.

According to sheriff's officials, the Jeepers established their roots successful 1965, erstwhile the Sheriff's Office sought to trim its effect clip for searches wrong the county's boundaries successful the backcountry of the Sierra National Forest by accessing the four-wheel thrust trails by vehicle.

The Sheriff's Office says they had requested assistance from the lone four-wheel thrust nine successful the country astatine the time, which was the Four-Wheel Drive Club of Fresno. Six members initially "volunteered" their vehicles, their time, and their acquisition and cognition of the section four-wheel thrust trails.

This is however officials accidental the inaugural radical of volunteers established the Fresno County Sheriff's Jeep Rescue portion with the founding support of the Sheriff. The Sheriff's Office describes the portion arsenic "one of the finest off-highway vehicles teams successful the state," and says each of its members are archetypal assistance certified.

The volunteers that marque up the portion see archetypal responders and radical registered arsenic Disaster Service Workers with the California Emergency Management Agency. The Sheriff's Jeep Rescue Unit members are trained successful representation and compass and GPS navigation, man-tracking, and archetypal aid.

To larn much astir the Sheriff's Jeep Rescue Unit, visit their website. To bargain tickets for Oktoberfest, click here.