Friday, Oct. 31, 2003 | 11:28 a.m.
SANTEE, Calif. -- The second group of Las Vegas-area firefighters sent to the fire-ravaged San Diego region arrived early Wednesday in good spirits, eager to take part in battling the largest fire in Southern California history.
When they had yet to be deployed to the field by Thursday night, it was hard for them to hide their frustration.
"It would've been nice to have participated in some kind of action by now," Capt. Dave De-Luca of Las Vegas Fire and Rescue said while standing outside one of his engines in the staging area of Gillespie Airfield, which is serving as base camp for nearly 3,700 firefighters.
The airfield is about 50 miles from Julian, a small mining town that was heavily damaged by the Cedar Fire, the biggest and deadliest of the seven blazes that are bringing Southern California to its knees and smoking up skies as far west as Texas.
The group, called a strike team, is composed of 23 firefighters from Las Vegas Fire and Rescue, Nevada Test Site Fire and Rescue and the Pahrump and Fallon fire departments.
The first Las Vegas area strike team, made up of fire personnel from Las Vegas, Henderson and Clark County fire departments arrived Tuesday evening.
That group spent all day and night Wednesday in the nearby town of Ramona, ensuring that burning embers from the Cedar Fire didn't erupt into flames. Those firefighters were off duty Thursday.
Some made the 25-mile drive to the city of San Diego, where they checked into a Holiday Inn and slept in warm beds instead of shivering in 40-degree temperatures on the ground or in their fire engines.
This morning the members of Nevada Strike Team 1 were told to grab their rain gear and pack up some lunches, so they were hoping that they would finally get to do some serious firefighting today. The prospects did not appear to be good, however, because they were stationed at the same place they had been on Wednesday -- California Highway 67 at Mussey Grade Road in the town of Ramona. They were there to watch for any flare-ups. Members of the Ramona Fire Department came by to shake their hands and thank them for their help.
Thursday night, members of the second Nevada strike team had passed their time at base camp by people-watching and napping, all the while hoping they would soon be dispatched to the fire scene.
Some members of the team stopped by a supply area and picked up a few items from the dozens of cardboard boxes donated by citizens, overflowing with T-shirts, sweatshirts, socks, toilet paper, paperback books, magazines and myriad other items.
John Rynes, deputy chief of the Nevada Test Site Fire and Rescue, who is also serving as strike force team leader, explained that the team isn't idle; the firefighters have to be prepared to go to wherever they are needed within three minutes.
"We all want to be out there. Our role can go from support role to offensive role at any time," Rynes said. "The guys that are on the front lines are depending on the guys in staging. Right now this is where they need us."
Not everyone agreed.
Capt. Jess Campbell of Las Vegas Fire and Rescue said firefighters on the front lines have been stretched to their limits, battling the fire for days at a time. Meanwhile, his team is ready to go, but officials with the California Division of Forestry have not sent them to the fire scene.
"It almost feels like there's some bureaucratic stuff going on," Campbell said as he sipped a drink at the food distribution area.
Teams who have expertise in extinguishing both structure and brush fires have been sent to the scene at a greater rate than those who are classified as having expertise in structure fires alone.
His team does have experience in battling brush as well as structure fires, Campbell said, but the team is classified as "Type 1" -- experienced in handling structure fires only.
While Campbell said it's possible that they have a Type 1 classification for their own safety, he pointed out that the firefighters who have spent days battling the fire are also at risk because of fatigue.
He said he feels bad that he can't go on a bus trip today to Disneyland he and his family had planned, and he'd "feel even worse if I miss it and I wasn't even needed here."
Rynes said that California officials requested that Nevada send a certain number of strike teams at the Type 1 level.
"This is why they sent this group," he said.
As for when the Nevada firefighters will be able to return home, that remained uncertain Friday morning. It could be days or it could be more than a week, officials said.
By Thursday night the humidity level had risen and some light rain had fallen, which allowed firefighters to contain about 40 percent of the Cedar Fire. With one of the biggest blazes dying down, the team hoped they'd be sent north to the Big Bear/Lake Arrowhead area, which had a substantial fire as of Thursday.
While they may be feeling underused, Las Vegas Fire and Rescue firefighter-paramedic Chris Rieffer pointed out that what they're doing in California isn't much different from what they do in Las Vegas: Remain ready to go out and fight fires when called.
DeLuca agreed with a smile. "We're like jungle cats," he said. "We're ready to pounce at any moment."
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