On Saturday, Jan. 11, four wildland firefighters from the Cortez Fire Protection District will head to Los Angeles County, where fires have killed at least 10 people, forced tens of thousands to evacuate from their homes and burned more than 36,000 acres over four days.
They’ll leave around 9 a.m. with Bayfield’s Upper Pine River Fire Protection District.
“It’s been very dynamic scheduling,” Cortez Fire Chief Roy Wilkinson said.
Wilkinson said they got the call to go earlier this week, but took a few days to get a crew together.
“I think they’re excited to go, especially to a big fire like this,” said Wilkinson. “I think it’s the adrenaline and the excitement of not knowing what they’re getting into.”
Plus, responding to such a big fire is good for training, he said.
They’re responding as a strike task force, which is a group of firefighters responding to the same incident – in this case, the fires in L.A. – with a shared leader.
Cortez is sending the four on a Type 3 truck, which Wilkinson described as being a bit smaller than a large engine. Bayfield will send their crew on the same kind of truck.
Capt. Jeremy Kelly, from Bayfield’s Upper Pine River Fire Protection District, said the truck will be manned with two firefighters – an “excited” paramedic and a rookie – plus an engine boss who’s deployed nationwide to fires all summer long.
“For being a small, rural department, having the opportunity to go to California is a big deal,” said Kelly. “It’s an exciting thing. They’ll be able to help out in a lot of different ways.”
The Los Pinos Fire Protection District in Ignacio sent four of their Wildland firefighters the afternoon of Jan. 9 on a Type 3 firetruck, said Los Pinos Deputy Chief Jim Owens.
“We’re getting on the road today,” Owens said.
Cortez Chief Wilkinson said it’s unclear how long they’ll be gone.
“Usually it’s two weeks,” he said. “But it could be a month, it could be a week. It just depends.”
In addition to the contingent from Southwest Colorado, 23 firefighters from the Bureau of Indian Affairs Division of Wildland Fire Management arrived Thursday in Los Angeles County to assist more than 1,603 assigned personnel who are fighting the Eaton Fire.
