With so many large fires burning in Northern California, firefighters aren’t just battling the flames, they are also battling exhaustion.
As the Dixie, Cache, and Caldor fires rage on, among others, many fire crews are having to jump from place to place.
Timothy Ingalsbee, the executive director of firefighters united, told KCBS Radio that it did not used to be this way. "Before, when you were sent to a fire you were kind of stuck there for the duration," he said.
Now, fire hotshot teams are brought in to attack a fire in its first few hours and then are ferried away to tackle the next big blaze.
"Traveling on school busses designed for small children is really not much rest in between work shifts," Ingalsbee said. "You don’t know where you’re going to sleep one day to the next or even what fire you’re on."
More firefighters would be great, but that's not the ultimate answer.
"The inconvenient truth is we will never have enough people to master one of the most powerful forces of nature," Ingalsbee admitted. "We have to stop fighting against it and start working with it."
That means positioning firefighters only near areas where they may need to save lives or homes, and implementing more controlled burns in the winter and the spring.
Right now, homeowners can help firefighters by following a few simple steps:
"You should be on your rooftop sweeping out those pine needles, cleaning out your gutters and moving any kind of flammable vegetation away from your house," said Ingalsbee. "Don’t make firefighters have to do that for you in the face of flames."
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