Monterey Fire called in to help fight the Pacific Palisades wildfire
SALINAS, Calif. (KION-TV) -- The city of Monterey Fire Department dispatched one engine plus crew to the Pacific Palisades wildfire Tuesday night.
CAL FIRE BEU Chief Josh Silvera told KION that off-duty crews are being called in to support the battle against the Southern California wildfires, saying that crews are "pretty frustrated" with the increasingly dangerous weather conditions.
"Drones aren't large enough to go in and drop retardant and water," he said. "We don't usually see this kind of fire activity in January."
The winds are being reported as life-threatening, and have prompted further deaths, evacuations and damaged buildings.
"You can basically take what we went through over a couple of weeks ago when we lost power in Monterey to more than 9000 residents just on the Monterey Peninsula," CAL FIRE San Benito-Monterey Unit Chief George Nunez said. "You take that kind of storm and you take that with the sustained winds down there in Southern California and that's exactly what you get."
Chief Silvera says that the Santa Ana wind conditions have made it very difficult for crews to fight any of the Southern California fires.
"We're working with the National Weather Service and Cal Fire prediction services for additional aerial guidance," said Silvera. "We're really hoping that the winds subside through the night."
CAL FIRE BEU said Wednesday that they have increased firefighter staffing and pre-positioned resources throughout Southern California. Silvera mentioned that the was on the way to help relieve some very tired firefighters and provide further help.
They said that a strike team of fire engines from the San Benito-Monterey Unit was moved down to Irvine as part of this pre-position Tuesday as well. This is in addition to deploying 45 additional fire engines and six additional hand crews to Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties.
"We're providing services and resources right now for crews on the ground as best we can," said Silvera. "It's just not safe for our crews to be in the area."
"We have over 115 personnel in Southern California right now assigned to either the Palisades fire, the Altadena [Eaton] fire, or they are serving as support, overhead positions or they are pre-positioning in Southern California in anticipation of additional fires that are breaking out," Chief Nunez said.
The Palisades fire broke out Tuesday morning around 10 a.m. Since then, at least 30,000 people have been evacuated.
It is expected to be the most destructive windstorm since 2011.
