Aurora firefighter wildland team deployed to help with California wildfires

AURORA | As multiple fires rage across California, members of Aurora Fire Rescue were deployed Friday to help.

Aurora Fire Rescue’s wildland team this week received a request to assist with the Los Angeles area wildfires. They responded by sending a “Type 3” brush engine and a crew, with Capt. Jeremy Sones leading.

“They’re reaching out to other geographical areas and other states, so definitely dire and extreme, and we’re looking forward to helping in any way we can,” Sones said. 

Sones has been with Aurora Fire Rescue for more than 27 years, but he originally started his career with Escondido Fire in North San Diego County in 1989 and worked there for nine years. He has been on approximately 15 wildland deployments, fire department spokesperson Dawn Small said in an email. 

“We’ve been hailed to Southern California,” Sones said to his team. “We’re going to be reporting at Noble Creek Park in Beaumont, California, and once we get there, we’ll be completing check-in inspections and then formed-up in our strike team or task force and deployed out from there.”

The crew is driving their specialty wildland fire rig straight through to Los Angeles, expecting to arrive there sometime late Saturday.

California’s coastal area extends into the mountains. The ecology includes a great deal of chaparral, a shrub that provides a moderate to heavy fuel that burns quickly and really hot, especially when it’s wind-driven, Sones said. 

“The denser population areas in those mountainous terrains,” he said. “That’s what makes it even more difficult. 

The assignments typically last two weeks but can be extended if California still needs resources. Sones said they would do a crew swap if it took longer than two weeks. 

The Mountainous terrain west of Denver is similar to the terrain in Southern California and Central California. Given this similarity, Sones named some preventative measures for homes in Colorado. 

His suggestions included signing up for CodeRED for alerts and notifications. He also suggested “hardening your home” by using fire-resistant materials when building or remodeling and creating a “defensible space” by clearing leaves and vegetation that accumulate within five feet around the house. 

“Vegetation fires, we talk about fuel, weather and topography are the influencing factors, but wind is the wild card,” he said. “We can’t control the wind.”