NCW Firefighters, Engines Heading To L.A. For Wildfire Assistance

As the scope and severity of the wildfires around Los Angeles continues to increase, many firefighting outfits from other Western states are answering a call for help that has gone out from officials in Southern California.

One of the agencies that's sending personnel and resources to L.A. is Chelan Fire & Rescue.

"On Wednesday morning, the state's Fire Defense Committee received notification from California that they were requesting help," says Chelan Fire Chief Brandon Asher. "They are requesting up to two-hundred engines and we were able to make one available to assist the efforts around Los Angeles."

Asher says Captain Taylor Rains, and firefighters Brandon Fogelson, Stephanie Preheim, and Duke Odenrider will accompany the apparatus to SoCal.

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"They left this morning at about six o'clock and will meet up with crews from Washington's Clark County to form one of the nine task forces that will be heading to California."

It will take about two days for the teams from Washington to reach L.A., and once they arrive their engines must be inspected before Asher says they will be assigned to one of the area's active wildfires.

"We don't know which fire our crews will be assigned to just yet. The Palisades Fire is the one that's been in the news the most, but there are other fires that are threatening large metropolitan areas down there, so we'll probably know by late tomorrow which fire they'll be assigned to."

All fire personnel from Washington State can spend a maximum of 18 days assigned to out-of-state fire detail, including a total of four days for travel to and from their operations destination.

The trip marks the second time that firefighters from Chelan Fire & Rescue have gone to Southern California to battle wildfires in the past five months.

Last September, four different firefighters accompanied the same apparatus to assist with wildfires around the San Bernardino area in a mission that also saw Asher himself serve as the unit's strike team leader.

Asher says battling fires in places far removed from a firefighter's own jurisdiction is never much different.

"Integrating into an incident command system that's already been established is something we're all very used to doing. We do that here in Washington State when state mobilizations happen and we go to different places like Spokane or the Westside. We're all very trained and proficient in doing that, so going down to a place like California is a little different but overall it's exactly like what we do here and it's just the same as if they were to come up here if we had a catastrophic fire."

An engine crew from the Wenatchee Valley Fire Department is also being deployed to assist with the firefighting efforts in Los Angeles.

Wenatchee Fire Chief Brian Brett says the crew includes Capts. Sean Clarke and Jordan Kunz, along with firefighters Jorge Ramos and Cole Clark.

Brett says his crews were also involved in assisting with blazes like the Line Fire around San Bernardino in Southern California last September.