‘These are our West Coast neighbors, and we feel it’: Inland Northwest firefighters, Red Cross head to LA inferno

Dozens of local Inland Northwest firefighters and American Red Cross personnel are joining firefighting and recovery forces helping out during Southern California’s devastating wildfires.

The fires have burned thousands of structures, forced thousands of people to flee their homes and killed at least seven people, according to the Associated Press.

Twenty-six North Idaho firefighters and seven fire engines from Northside Fire District (Ponderay), Selkirk Fire Rescue & EMS (Sagle), Timberlake Fire Protection District (Athol), Northern Lakes Fire District (Hayden), Kootenai County Fire & Rescue (Post Falls), Paradise Valley Fire Department (Bonners Ferry), Shoshone County Fire District 2 (Kellogg) and Worley Fire District gathered Thursday morning to start driving to the Los Angeles area, according to a Kootenai County Fire Chiefs Association news release.

The release said the firefighters and engines will join the rest of the strike teams from across Idaho before receiving assignments from the incident commanders managing the wildfires in California.

Four of the 26 firefighters, which include a battalion chief, captain, engineer and firefighter, are from Northern Lakes Fire District, said Chris Larson, deputy fire marshal and public information officer at Northern Lakes.

Larson said the four firefighters, who are driving one of the district’s fire engines and command center pickup truck to Los Angeles, plan to serve as a structure protection group. He said he expects North Idaho firefighters to arrive Friday or Saturday in Southern California.

Larson said his district had the staffing and resources to provide assistance to their Southwest neighbor while ensuring responses to calls for service in the district would be unaffected. He said the district tries to keep all its resources available during the summer when wildfires are common but was able to spare personnel and equipment this time of year.

“We looked it as an opportunity to provide a service to citizens in California,” Larson said.

He said it was also a chance to return the favor when fire crews across the country were sent to North Idaho to battle wildfires over the years. Many Northern Lakes firefighters have family members in Southern California, and some have worked there, Larson said.

The Idaho Office of Emergency Management (IOEM) received the request for support from California through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC), an interstate alliance that provides a mutual-aid framework allowing states to share resources during times of disaster, according to an IOEM news release All costs associated with deploying resources under EMAC are paid for by the requesting state, or California in this case.

In Washington, the state Department of Natural Resources is sending two firefighting crews to protect the Angeles National Forest, according to previous Spokesman-Review reporting. Ten engines and 35 wildland firefighters will be part of the deployment, according to DNR.

At least 11 American Red Cross staff and volunteers in Washington, including two from Spokane, are heading to or arrived in Southern California to assist, according to Betsy Robertson, communications director at the Red Cross’s Northwest Region. She said more Red Cross members in Washington will be assigned in the future.

Seven Red Cross shelters were available in the Greater Los Angeles area, according to the Red Cross website Thursday night. Robertson said more than 1,000 people were at those shelters Thursday morning, but that number is fluid as people come and go.

The shelters provide a place for evacuees to rest, eat and get health services, including mental health support, she said.

Robertson said they’re coordinating with Red Cross members in Los Angeles to see how many people they need and what duties need to be performed. She said Red Cross is mobilizing thousands of its members across the country, including in the Los Angeles area, to help.

“This one feels closer. These are our West Coast neighbors, and we feel it,” Robertson said. “Many of us have personal connections.”

Robertson is one of them.

She said her sister’s home was the only one left standing in her neighborhood in Altadena, one of the towns decimated by fire. Everything around the home burned to the ground.

“There’s nothing around it except destruction and the constant reminder of what happened,” Robertson said.

Some Red Cross volunteers lost their homes in the California fires, she said.

“This is a tough one,” Robertson said. “Every disaster is.”