KLAMATH NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. -- -- The Miramar Fire Department aboard Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California, sent a team to assist with fighting wildfires in the Klamath National Forest, Calif., July 30.
Multiple fires ignited from lightning strikes during a storm that occurred July 28-30. A reported 1,235 downed strikes were recorded during the storm, and 69 caused fires in the area, with all but six currently contained. The uncontained fires are within the July Complex Fires, Beaver Fire and Little Deer Fires, as of Aug.4, explained Kerry Greene, public affairs officer with the Klamath National Forest.
The Miramar crew teamed up with the Klamath Lightning Complex to help fight the Little Deer Fire, one of a series of fires on the border of California and Oregon.
“We are really appreciative of their support,” said Greene.
The Miramar team consists of four personnel: a company officer, driver, firefighter and paramedic. Equipped with a four-wheel drive brush truck, the Miramar team joined teams from the Cleveland National Forest, San Bernardino National Forest, and Inyo National Forest Fire Departments to help extinguish the Klamath National Forest wildfires. The Miramar Fire Department sent an additional person to join another incident management team as well.
Each team is similarly staffed, creating an overall crew of five trucks and 20 team members. One of the chief officers with the Cleveland National Forest serves as the incident management team leader for this team while assisting CAL FIRE and the National Forest Division. The incident management team leader provides communication, logistical support, operational supervision and ensures the welfare of his team.
The fires are referred to as a complex when the overseeing incident management team is trying to control several different fires within a region, as opposed to focusing on one fire exclusively. The team is assigned a 24-hour work shift rotation over a consecutive 14-day period. The shifts depend on the needs of the fire effort, and the period can be extended seven additional days.
“As you’ve been hearing in the news, the drought that has been impacting our nation and our state itself has put us in a highly prone fire danger,” said Chief Joshua Allen, assistant chief of operations with the Miramar Fire Department. “With that being said, [the] storms that [came] through have created a lot of fires due to lightning activity.”
The Miramar team provides support as part of mutual aid agreements, a type of support contract with the National Forest and area municipalities.
“We honor those agreements more than a dozen times a year by lending a hand and by lending resources out like we have just [did] yesterday by sending a crew up north,” said Allen.
Mutual aid agreements provide agencies with a reciprocal support arrangement, allowing for a cost-effective agreement to provide aid to an organization in a time of need.
The Klamath National Forest Little Deer Fire is 60% contained with 5,279 acres, as of 3 p.m., Aug. 5.