State wildfires draining local Cal Fire resources

Gov. JerryBrown declared a state of emergency throughout California as wildfires rage across the state. His order requires all state agencies to provide assistance if needed to respond to the fires. But on the Central Coast, Cal Fire said local resources are running thin.

The Cal Fire Monterey-San Benito Unit said right nowit just can’t send any more help without jeopardizing our area.

“We need all the resources. Unless someone has a pre-planned vacation, no one is getting off duty,” Cal Fire Battalion Chief Dennis King said.

King said with hundreds of their firefighters deployed to the northern part of the state, by law Cal Fire is atits limit and can’t send anymore crews and still handle a fire at home.

“We are contractually obliged to have a certain staffing level and that’s three persons, one of them paramedic on each one of the engines. So that’s the minimum drawdown we can have and will not send any of those engines away without the ability to backfill that,” King said.

King said normally the San Benito-Monterey Unit has 17 engines and now 10 are out battling wildfires.

Cal Fire isn’t the only agency sending help. Monterey Firenot onlysent crews to fight the fires but personnel called Line EMTs who provide medical care.

“If something happens, somebody gets burned over, somebody gets hurt by a tool, falling trees, something like that, they can instantly provide medical aid,” Stewart Roth with Monterey Fire said.

It’s no easy task. With rough terrain and hot conditions, it’s not exactly a doctor’s office.

“They’re carrying packs with medical equipment,IV equipment, all that stuff they would use to treat somebody who was burned or seriously injured,” Roth said.

With long shifts and no end to the fire season in sight, firefighters will need all the help they can get.