CAL FIRE San Diego fills in for local fire crews as they fight California fires

CAL FIRE firefighters from the Central Coast are stationed throughout the state of California as fire crews battle fires from Riverside County up to Butte County. CAL FIRE stations from the southern regions respond by helping our local stations.

On a typical day, 12 engines are staffed at CAL FIRE Station 30 in San Luis Obispo County. Right now, 10 of those 12 are deployed to Butte, Riverside and Kern counties. CAL FIRE San Diego has been staffing stations in San Luis Obispo County in the meantime.

“Right now, we have the Park Fire in the Chico area. We have five fire engines deployed there as part of a strike team," said Fire Captain Eric Carreiro said. "So a total number of 17 personnel assigned to engines as well as numerous hand crews and our incident management team personnel from here in San Luis Obispo County are assisting in the management of that incident.”

Carreiro says fire crew members complete a 21-day rotation. It's already been a week since they’ve headed out.

“We're tracking to make sure that those personnel that are there come back prior to 21 days on the line, and then we will send another group of personnel," Carreiro said. "I don't have an estimate as to when the engines will be back in San Luis Obispo County. They may leave that fire and go to the next.”

Carreiro says fire crews are currently working 24-hour shifts. CAL FIRE stations rotate staff throughout the state as they assign the appropriate number of personnel to each fire. Should CAL FIRE San Diego's crews be sent elsewhere, a new crew will come to San Luis Obispo.

Carreiro said websites such as readyforwildfire.org are beneficial for making sure your homes and loved ones are prepared as we enter what he calls prime fire season in the month of August.