1 00:00:00,108 --> 00:00:02,610 - On this fire, the role that we have right now, 2 00:00:02,610 --> 00:00:06,777 we have no fires burning on base, so when a mutual aid 3 00:00:06,992 --> 00:00:10,063 or big fires happen out in, anywhere actually, 4 00:00:10,063 --> 00:00:12,967 in the nation, but right now in Southern California, 5 00:00:12,967 --> 00:00:15,613 we go ahead and send resources out to go ahead 6 00:00:15,613 --> 00:00:18,112 and assist other agencies in fighting these fires. 7 00:00:18,112 --> 00:00:20,658 But mostly sending our fire engines personnel, 8 00:00:20,658 --> 00:00:22,816 so your Type One engines, which are normal structure 9 00:00:22,816 --> 00:00:24,924 engines you see, and also our Type Three engines 10 00:00:24,924 --> 00:00:27,600 who are our brush trucks that you see around the base. 11 00:00:27,600 --> 00:00:30,057 So we go off in the hills with them fight fire. 12 00:00:30,057 --> 00:00:32,316 The whole process is if fire breaks out somewhere, 13 00:00:32,316 --> 00:00:35,582 say in Southern California like it did on Monday evening, 14 00:00:35,582 --> 00:00:37,479 I believe, with the Santa Ana winds blowing up 15 00:00:37,479 --> 00:00:40,551 in Los Angeles and Ventura, the state put out, 16 00:00:40,551 --> 00:00:43,221 those agencies put out an order for more engines, 17 00:00:43,221 --> 00:00:45,311 more resources, to help fight the fires. 18 00:00:45,311 --> 00:00:47,924 It goes through a big system and basically they look 19 00:00:47,924 --> 00:00:50,211 for what's available in the state. 20 00:00:50,211 --> 00:00:53,618 We answer that, like, what I'm with today, 21 00:00:53,618 --> 00:00:55,249 we're a strike team leader, I'm a strike team leader, 22 00:00:55,249 --> 00:00:57,606 I have five Type One engines behind me. 23 00:00:57,606 --> 00:00:59,976 Those are from different agencies: North County Fire, 24 00:00:59,976 --> 00:01:01,976 Carlsbad, Rincon, Palma. 25 00:01:03,338 --> 00:01:05,303 We go ahead and we're the leader of those engines. 26 00:01:05,303 --> 00:01:07,072 We travel in formation. 27 00:01:07,072 --> 00:01:08,814 We got up to the fire, we check into the fire, 28 00:01:08,814 --> 00:01:10,265 and we end up fighting the fire. 29 00:01:10,265 --> 00:01:13,181 May be there for two days, like we were on the Creek Fire, 30 00:01:13,181 --> 00:01:14,818 then what we do is we demob out. 31 00:01:14,818 --> 00:01:18,196 This fire broke, they sent us down here back to San Diego. 32 00:01:18,196 --> 00:01:20,644 So we just checked into this fire, we're going to bed down 33 00:01:20,644 --> 00:01:23,212 for the night, and then we'll be on the line tomorrow. 34 00:01:23,212 --> 00:01:25,440 This can go on for up to 14 days. 35 00:01:25,440 --> 00:01:28,815 We do have military aircraft that do fight the fire 36 00:01:28,815 --> 00:01:31,821 when all other state assets with fixed-wing 37 00:01:31,821 --> 00:01:34,738 and rotary wing are stretched thin. 38 00:01:34,961 --> 00:01:36,894 They will activate the military aircraft, 39 00:01:36,894 --> 00:01:39,719 and they will fly on these fires, and they do train. 40 00:01:39,719 --> 00:01:41,173 We do work with them on Camp Pendleton, 41 00:01:41,173 --> 00:01:42,079 actually quite a bit. 42 00:01:42,079 --> 00:01:43,360 What we have going on in the state right now, 43 00:01:43,360 --> 00:01:45,311 we've tapped out all air resources, so they have 44 00:01:45,311 --> 00:01:48,837 the military flying in tandem with the civilian aircraft 45 00:01:48,837 --> 00:01:50,650 to help fight the fire. 46 00:01:50,650 --> 00:01:53,085 Well right now, this fire, the Lilac Fire, from what I 47 00:01:53,085 --> 00:01:55,127 understand, it's about a mile away from the base, 48 00:01:55,127 --> 00:01:56,262 it's in the city of Fallbrook. 49 00:01:56,262 --> 00:01:57,798 It's burned through the city of Bonsall. 50 00:01:57,798 --> 00:01:59,569 So they're looking for perimeter control right now. 51 00:01:59,569 --> 00:02:02,401 They just want to go ahead and contain the perimeter. 52 00:02:02,401 --> 00:02:04,817 We're waiting for more winds tomorrow, so they want to 53 00:02:04,817 --> 00:02:07,419 secure that perimeter so we don't get any more fire growth. 54 00:02:07,419 --> 00:02:10,279 So that's pretty much the goal for right now. 55 00:02:10,279 --> 00:02:12,724 After we contain that perimeter, we'll start mopping up 56 00:02:12,724 --> 00:02:14,974 everything on the interior. 57 00:02:15,274 --> 00:02:19,357 Unfortunately, folks did lose homes in this fire, 58 00:02:19,567 --> 00:02:23,393 so it's going to be a lot of repopulating, opening roads, 59 00:02:23,393 --> 00:02:26,893 and stuff like that to get people's lives, 60 00:02:26,919 --> 00:02:28,948 a semblance of normal, and those that lost their house, 61 00:02:28,948 --> 00:02:30,842 let them start moving forward. 62 00:02:30,842 --> 00:02:32,395 You know, a lot of times you don't have a say 63 00:02:32,395 --> 00:02:34,163 in these wind-driven fires where they go. 64 00:02:34,163 --> 00:02:36,964 We just try and corral the outside, and maybe steer them 65 00:02:36,964 --> 00:02:40,041 in a direction where we can go ahead and protect assets, 66 00:02:40,041 --> 00:02:42,407 but Camp Pendleton has a lot of vital infrastructure 67 00:02:42,407 --> 00:02:44,781 and assets, and we've had major fires there in the past 68 00:02:44,781 --> 00:02:47,615 that have been high dollar amount, so we would like 69 00:02:47,615 --> 00:02:49,394 to avoid that from happening. 70 00:02:49,394 --> 00:02:51,539 The fire department Camp Pendleton is out here, 71 00:02:51,539 --> 00:02:54,784 not only do we serve Camp Pendleton, but we serve 72 00:02:54,784 --> 00:02:57,513 all the surrounding communities also. 73 00:02:57,513 --> 00:02:59,587 So it's a big effort by the entire 74 00:02:59,587 --> 00:03:01,897 fire service community in San Diego. 75 00:03:01,897 --> 00:03:05,147 - We came down initially three days ago 76 00:03:07,211 --> 00:03:08,706 and just covering. 77 00:03:08,706 --> 00:03:10,937 We came to San Bernardino County first, 78 00:03:10,937 --> 00:03:14,621 and when this fire started here in San Diego County, 79 00:03:14,621 --> 00:03:16,454 got sent to this fire. 80 00:03:16,792 --> 00:03:19,709 When we came in, as opposed to now, 81 00:03:21,473 --> 00:03:23,381 it was a very chaotic scene. 82 00:03:23,381 --> 00:03:27,438 The extreme fire behavior because of the Santa Ana winds 83 00:03:27,438 --> 00:03:31,105 and a lot of resources coming from all over, 84 00:03:31,149 --> 00:03:35,296 so within California we use a lot of cooperating agencies, 85 00:03:35,296 --> 00:03:38,741 local governments, state agencies, federal agencies, 86 00:03:38,741 --> 00:03:41,766 and then including military partners. 87 00:03:41,766 --> 00:03:45,933 When we came in, I did, we came across the Camp Pendleton 88 00:03:46,285 --> 00:03:48,520 fire engine, I saw them on the line when we passed 89 00:03:48,520 --> 00:03:51,988 and they were laying hose one direction as we were 90 00:03:51,988 --> 00:03:54,519 cutting hand line the other direction. 91 00:03:54,519 --> 00:03:56,519 But it's pretty amazing. 92 00:03:58,333 --> 00:04:00,603 We're kind of a paramilitary organization, 93 00:04:00,603 --> 00:04:03,340 so we do things similar, with rank structures 94 00:04:03,340 --> 00:04:05,356 and things like that, like I was telling your partner, 95 00:04:05,356 --> 00:04:07,622 and it's a little bit of organized chaos. 96 00:04:07,622 --> 00:04:08,968 Same thing you guys understand. 97 00:04:08,968 --> 00:04:13,135 Coming in we have, we call the Incident Command System, 98 00:04:13,837 --> 00:04:16,554 so everybody knows their place within the fire, 99 00:04:16,554 --> 00:04:18,713 and everybody has the same communications 100 00:04:18,713 --> 00:04:21,912 when we come into the fire, and we get assigned tasks, 101 00:04:21,912 --> 00:04:25,032 and we go complete those tasks no matter who's doing it. 102 00:04:25,032 --> 00:04:29,199 So one day we're side by side with CAL FIRE employees, 103 00:04:30,208 --> 00:04:33,164 the next hour we're side by side with the Marine Corps 104 00:04:33,164 --> 00:04:35,469 people on a Camp Pendleton engine. 105 00:04:35,469 --> 00:04:37,574 And it works out really well that way. 106 00:04:37,574 --> 00:04:40,574 We came across the engine yesterday. 107 00:04:40,708 --> 00:04:42,565 We've been on the line for over 24 hours, 108 00:04:42,565 --> 00:04:44,502 and this morning, while we were trying to get 109 00:04:44,502 --> 00:04:48,158 a little bit of rest, the Huey copters from Pendleton 110 00:04:48,158 --> 00:04:50,866 came across, and that was a good sight to see. 111 00:04:50,866 --> 00:04:53,315 They put a lot of work in, hitting all the hot spots 112 00:04:53,315 --> 00:04:57,482 of the fire, and helping us out putting the fire out. 113 00:04:58,482 --> 00:05:01,042 As you can see behind me now, it looks really well 114 00:05:01,042 --> 00:05:02,923 because of the work they put in. 115 00:05:02,923 --> 00:05:05,256 Right now it's calming down. 116 00:05:05,485 --> 00:05:09,402 The biggest aspect for us is the Santa Ana wind 117 00:05:10,967 --> 00:05:13,350 decreased last night about 2:00 a.m. 118 00:05:13,350 --> 00:05:16,584 When that happened, the fire intensity decreased 119 00:05:16,584 --> 00:05:19,980 significantly, and instead of chasing the fire 120 00:05:19,980 --> 00:05:21,997 as it's moving so fast, now we can kind of 121 00:05:21,997 --> 00:05:24,340 get in front of it and really knock it down, 122 00:05:24,340 --> 00:05:27,234 and that wind change really helped us, 123 00:05:27,234 --> 00:05:29,091 and you can see the effects of it tonight, 124 00:05:29,091 --> 00:05:30,432 where it's not nearly as active. 125 00:05:30,432 --> 00:05:34,599 This time last night this whole hillside was on fire. 126 00:05:35,194 --> 00:05:38,778 The engines, like the Camp Pendleton engine was in here 127 00:05:38,778 --> 00:05:41,028 saving all these structures that you see saved.