High fire danger, CAL FIRE beefs up staffing on Central Coast

Hot temperatures coupled with the dry vegetation has CAL FIRE beefing up staffing this week. Local fighters out battling wildfires burning across the state, have now returned to the Central Coast in anticipation of a fire here at home.

“I’ve never seen anything quite like it,” said Joseph Manzoni, a firefighter with CAL FIRE.

Fire Capt. Noelle Bahnmiller and Manzoni have just returned home after being gone for the last 20 days battling three different wildfires in California. CAL FIRE stations on the Central Coast are gearing up for the potential at home.

“We have added additional equipment and called back some resources to make sure that we have extra staffing in place,” said CAL FIRE Public Information Officer Jonathan Pangburn.

Acres of land charred and buildings destroyed during the Boles Fire burning in Weed, California is something Bahnmiller and Manzoni said they will never forget.
“It was like walking through a neighborhood where a bomb went off,” said Manzoni.

Now back at home the two can’t imagine that kind of destruction happening here on the Central Coast.

“It was really difficult to watch what that community had to go through,” said Bahnmiller.

Even though we had some rain here on the Central Coast last week, firefighters said we’re not in the clear just yet.

“The vegetation happens to be extremely dry this year. And exacerbated by multiple years of drought,” said Pangburn.

So when the temperatures warm up like they will in the coming days, the fire danger increases, and that’s where Bahnmiller and Mazoni’s experience at big fires this season comes in handy.

All the wildfires in the state are now contained, with the exception of the King Fire burning near Sacramento. That blaze is 94 percent contained as of Wednesday.