Local fire fighters continue with aid

Deepa Bharath

Local fire officials say they are worried and cautious as they are

preparing to send out more strike teams to battle the wildfires that

worsened near Lake Arrowhead and in San Diego Tuesday morning.

So far, Costa Mesa Fire Department has sent eight firefighters in

two engines and Newport Beach has sent out 12 firefighters and two

battalion chiefs in three engines.

On Tuesday, fire chiefs Jim Ellis and Tim Riley conferred with

other fire chiefs in the county and decided to authorize one more

engine each if needed, they said.

“We’re not excited about it,” said Riley, Newport Beach’s fire

chief. “As of now, we’ve had all our stations fully staffed. But if

we have to send out one more engine, then we’ll be short one engine

in our city. Today, we had to decide how comfortable we’ll feel doing

that.”

Costa Mesa will continue to staff its stations adequately, said

Ellis, the city’s fire chief.

“We always help our neighbors,” he said. “But our community comes

first.”

Newport-Mesa firefighters on Monday were in different locations

from San Bernardino to Simi Valley. But they could be sent anywhere

at anytime depending on where they are needed the most, officials

said. No injuries have been reported so far.

On Tuesday, all of the county’s fire chiefs decided to keep three

teams on stand-by, Riley said. Both Costa Mesa and Newport Beach have

agreed to contribute one engine each to that group. A strike team

consists of five engines and each engine typically carries four

firefighters, who may or may not include a battalion chief.

Both chiefs said they feel “fortunate” that the fires have spared

Orange County so far. Riley said he is concerned how the county would

react with its resources “spread so thin” if a fire were to break out

within the next few days.

“Totally, we have 75 engines gone from Orange County at this

time,” he said. “That’s a lot of engines.”

That also includes several from the Orange County Fire Authority

from which other cities, including Newport Beach, rely heavily to

fight brush fires.

Ellis said there is the potential for a fire in Orange County.

“Much as I hate to say it, it’s true,” he said. “We can only hope

and pray that it doesn’t happen now.”

It seems as if the county is getting a “reprieve” this time after

the furious, fast-moving Laguna fire in 1993 that destroyed more than

300 homes over just one day, Riley said.

“But a fire knows no geo-political or social boundaries,” he said.

“It goes where it goes.”