Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2003 | 11:29 a.m.
SANTEE, Calif. -- Las Vegas Valley firefighters were told this morning to prepare to leave base camp for the eastern edge of the Cedar Fire to try to protect the town of Julian, Calif.
As he prepared to leave the command post at Gillespie Field, a small airfield near Santee, Scott Allison, a Clark County Fire Department engineer and paramedic, said, "I'd be lying if I didn't say I'm a little nervous. But if you get comfortable, that's when someone gets hurt or killed."
Allison is a member of one of the two strike teams sent to California from Nevada on Tuesday. The teams include firefighters from throughout the valley.
They already knew they could be fighting the fire for stints of up to 72 consecutive hours before returning to the base camp. They learned today that they also could be in San Diego County battling the blaze until Nov. 5, which is date on which the fire is expected to be contained.
Four Henderson firefighters who are members of Nevada Strike Team 1 said they had expected to head to the front lines as soon as they arrived yesterday, after the six-hour drive to San Diego.
They stood in the chill of a Southern California fall morning just after dawn today near their ladder truck, fog mixing with the smoke from forest fires that have consumed so much of this area.
After an unexpectedly good night's sleep, they were anxious to go to work.
"We've had a cup of coffee, and we're doing what we love," Engineer Dale Swafford said.
Capt. Wally Linge added, "It's an opportunity to give them a hand. It's the very first time Henderson has sent aid to another state."
Nevada firefighters from city and county departments have never been called to another state to help.
The first team of 21 firefighters, two battalion chiefs and a mechanic from Las Vegas, Clark County and Henderson fire departments arrived about 6 p.m. at the airfield that served as a base camp for more than 3,000 firefighters battling the Cedar Fire.
A second team from Nevada, drawing equipment and 16 firefighters from the Nevada Test Site, Las Vegas and Pahrump fire departments and Fallon Naval Air Station, arrived about 2:30 a.m.
Firefighters from North Las Vegas and Lake Mead are also members of the teams.
As they waited for the equipment they needed to battle the flames, they milled among the many tents, trailers and an endless row of fire engines fill Gillespie Field, five miles south of the fire.
Light flurries of ash fell from the sky and a thin veil of acrid-smelling smoke hovered over the area.
Wildland firefighters, who had been on the front lines for about 30 hours, were asleep in small tents and on the ground in a dark field near the landing strip.
Firefighters who arrived Tuesday night used portable showers, shaved using portable sinks and mirrors, ate at a food tent and stocked up on equipment they would need for the next day's mission.
The mood was upbeat and many firefighters said they were excited to be there.
Standing outside the green and white striped tent that would serve as home base for the next three days, Capt. Kelly Claridy of the Clark County Fire Department said he was ready for the challenge of battling a major brush fire, something most local firefighters have never done
"We fight structure fires, car fires, trash fires, some brush fires and garage fires," he said. "This is definitely a unique experience. ... We've never been exposed to anything like this before. We're as prepared as we can be."
Firefighter Marvin Robinson said battling the California blazes will be "an accelerated course. This is a once in a lifetime deal."
The Las Vegas Fire and Rescue personnel were in for a surprise when they arrived at the base camp.
They had been told they would be staying at various fire stations and taking over the regular duties of the San Diego area firefighters who were battling the major brush fires. But when they arrived, they found out they were needed to fight the Cedar Fire, which is raging east of San Diego. "Most of the Las Vegas, Clark County and Henderson fire departments don't have (wildfire) experience," Battalion Chief Curt Harper said. "But (San Diego fire officials) need manpower and equipment."
Harper said the Nevada strike teams will most likely be protecting homes and buildings from flames instead of getting deep into the fire.
Firefighters will be supplied with wildland fire suits and equipment designed to withstand hours of intense heat. The suits worn by Las Vegas area firefighters during structure fires are heavier and not meant to be worn for long periods of time, he said.
"They protect us from heat but they don't allow heat to escape," he said. With a structure fire, "you go in, put the fire out within three or four minutes and get out. With this type of fire, you're in it all day long."
The Las Vegas area firefighters left for Southern California with less than 24 hours notice. California fire officials contacted local fire departments Monday night and asked if they could spare some personnel and equipment.
Local fire department officials asked for volunteers who wanted to go and "we had more volunteers than could come," Claridy said.
Allison, one of the Clark County firefighters, said the decision was "a no-brainer."
"We didn't even have to think twice about it," he said. "We wanted to help our fellow firefighters."
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