Nearly 150 Washington firefighters are expected to make the long haul to Southern California to help with the devastating wildfires ravaging the area.
According to the Washington Emergency Management Division, the state is working on sending 45 engines and 11 trucks to provide additional assistance.
On Wednesday, crews from Snohomish County to the Canadian border got a head start answering the call for help from the state.
“It was a quick turnaround. Once the call was made, everyone scrambled. The resource leaders filtering down to get the boots on the street down there,” said Battalion Chief Justyn Shevlin with Snohomish Regional Fire & Rescue.
Shevlin told KIRO 7 that nine departments from Snohomish County, Island County, Skagit County and Whatcom County joined together to form two strike teams.
The convoy made their first stop in Salem, Oregon on Wednesday evening before making the journey to Los Angeles.
" Everyone going down there is wildland certified, red card certified and trained to meet these conditions,” Shevlin explained.
Shevlin says the nearly 40 firefighters heading down are prepared to take on conditions they’re not used to here in Washington.
" Wildland firefighting is different apparatus, different tools, a different skill set, a lot to do with weather patterns, topography patterns of the region that you’re in, different types of water supply,” he explained.
Shevlin says these crews will be helping where they can. This means they’ll be relieving firefighters who need rest, extinguishing flames and using their engines to protect structures being threatened by the wildfires.
“Normally you are put on 12-hour shifts potentially but whatever the resource managers down there need that’s what we’ll be tasked with,” he said.
Shevlin assures that their absence will not impact response times at home.
“We have 200 firefighters within our organization, so we’re only sending five. So we’re sending a strike team leader and one structural engine with a crew of four,” he added. “There’s no loss of service to the residents that we serve in Snohomish Regional Fire and Rescue, our minimum or daily staffing has stayed the same.”
Here’s a list of some of the fire departments with crews heading to Southern California:
- Snohomish Regional Fire and Rescue
- North County Fire
- South County Fire
- Sky Valley
- Snoho Fire Districts 16, 4, 22, 15
- Camano Island Fire & Rescue
- Eastside Fire & Rescue
- Chelan Fire & Rescue
- Key Peninsula Fire
- Gig Harbor Fire & Medic One
- Shoreline Fire
- North Mason Regional Fire
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