Central Coast fire crews stepping up in wildfire fight

Eight major wildfires are burning across California and more than 13,000 firefighters are risking their lives on the front lines. But as wildfires rage across the state, resources on the Central Coast are spreading thin.

“They need the help so we have fire engines locally that have gone up to Northern California to help those communities,” said Bo Lee with the San Benito-Monterey Cal Fire Unit.

Lee said the San Benito-Monterey Cal Fire unitsent 15 engines and more than 100 personnel to the fires. This means staff on the Central Coast are having to work overtime.

“We have personnel locally that have been held on duty to staff that extra equipment to backfill behind those engines that are out of the county,” said Lee.

The Santa Cruz Cal Fire Unit is also running thin. Withone-third of its workforce out of the area, there is enough staff for five engines instead of the usual 12.

And most of those resources are at the Valley and Butte fires – two of the most devastating so far this year.

“There have been five confirmed fatalities on both the Butte and the Valley fires,” said Cal Fire spokesperson Daniel Berlant.

Berlant said some rain and cooler temperatures in the North helped, but it’s possible that fire activity will flare up again.

“While the rain was nice, it’s not going to do much in the long term so we still have a lot of work over the next couple of days,” said Berlant.

With fire season showing no signs of stopping, Lee said there is we have back-upin casemore local crews need to help with wildfires.

“Right now we have a strike team of engines from the Cal Fire San Diego unit covering some of our state stations,” said Lee.