SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — As the fight against the Los Angeles wildfires rages on, local resources from San Diego were being deployed to help.
According to the state, a total of more than 7,500 emergency personnel are helping fight those fires. That includes teams from San Diego County.
It’s not just the San Diego Fire and Rescue Department — it’s also teams from Chula Vista, Poway, Carlsbad, Oceanside, and National City.
Many of them are organized into strike teams.
Firefighters tell us their vehicles are like mobile fire stations where they store their gear and coordinate with other teams.
This cuts down on response times, saving crucial minutes when fires can ignite and spread quickly, as we’ve seen in Los Angeles during the Santa Ana wind event.
ABC 10News met a San Diego Fire Dept. Battalion Chief Craig Newell, who says firefighters need to support each other to make sure everyone makes it home.
“They're working long hours, long nights, right, and we want everyone to be able to get this taken care of, get it put out,” said Newell. “But then come home, right? To their families, and then regroup. And get ready to go do it again.”
SDFR says local teams could stay in Los Angeles as long as two or three weeks.
