Fire crews from all over California are helping out at the Lake Fire thanks to California's mutual aid system.
"We have a lot of resources out right now," said CAL FIRE Captain Jimmy Harris, who works out of the Paso Robles Air Attack Base. "We have about 28 people in overhead positions, and those overhead positions consist of logistics, mechanics, operations folks, etc. And then we have one dozer strike team out that consists of two bulldozers and we have 12 crew strike teams. Each strike team consists of two crew buggies."
Captain Danny Ciecek showed me around the CAL FIRE command center in San Luis Obispo. He says resource distribution is a constantly evolving situation.
From the command center, the CAL FIRE team has a person assigned to each resource. That includes dozer teams, fire engines, and even base camp toilets and showers.
"They'll take resources from neighboring units. They won't allow resources to be completely stripped away from that specific area," Harris explained. "We want to make sure that there's adequate resources left behind to fight wildfires that occur in our area."
Captain Ciecek says twice a day, ongoing incidents are evaluated and ranked in order of priority, and resources are moved around as needed.
Crews out at the wildfires can also request additional resources.
"It just depends on what the fire is doing," Harris said. "If the wildfire is growing at a pace that is not, you know, beneficial to our firefighters and more resources are needed, those requests will be made."
For the firefighters deployed to the Lake Fire, long shifts are the norm.
"When crews are dispatched to an incident — engine crew, you know, hand crews — they'll be working for 24 hours on the line and then at times, they'll have a reprieve. They'll have replacements come in on that part of the line they've been working and then they'll have 24 hours off to rest," Harris said.
The community surrounding the Lake Fire appreciates the firefighters coming from other areas to offer help.
"Just thank you. Thank you. This entire community is grateful and indebted to all of their hard work," said Nicole Liddi, Santa Ynez Valley resident.
