PORT TOWNSEND — Three firefighters from East Jefferson County have been deployed in a five-engine strike force from the Puget Sound area to help fight fires in California.
The two-week deployment could last up to 21 days with a week-long extension, said Ted Krysinski, an assistant chief for East Jefferson Fire-Rescue (EJFR).
Krysinski said Monday the crew planned to stop at the end of the day in Southern Oregon or Northern California to get some rest before they report to an assigned location today.
The crew had not been assigned a specific fire or location as of Monday morning, Krysinski said.
“They’ll be on the fire line about mid-day [today],” he said.
The crew includes an engine boss, an engineer and a firefighter along with the brush truck, Krysinski said. Two are from EJFR and the other is from Port Ludlow Fire & Rescue, he said.
He did not identify them by name.
They joined crews from the Bainbridge Island Fire Department, Central Kitsap Fire & Rescue, North Kitsap Fire Rescue and South Kitsap Fire and Rescue.
All have national certification in wildland firefighting, Krysinski said.
Firefighters from other agencies on the North Olympic Peninsula have not been deployed.
Two California fires are believed to have started Sunday in the San Francisco Bay area when a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. power line came in contact with a communications line, the Associated Press reported.
A separate fire near Los Angeles threatened Interstate 405, tens of thousands of homes and forced the cancellation of public and private school programs, including UCLA.
About 200,000 people were under evacuation orders in the Northern California fire in Sonoma County that began last week and was only 5 percent contained Monday morning, the Associated Press reported.
“The state of California has exhausted all its resources and is reaching out to neighboring states,” Krysinski said.
The response is to help with fire, construction, law enforcement — “pretty much anything they need,” he said.
Through an Emergency Management Assistance Compact, a national state-to-state mutual aid system, California requested 75 strike teams or pieces of apparatus, said Emily Stewart, the business and human resources manager for East Jefferson Fire-Rescue.
Oregon resources were insufficient, so the request from California came to Washington, Stewart said.
“It was a really big ask; they didn’t immediately have 75 available,” she said of Oregon’s available resources.
Krysinski said the state is notified through its Department of Emergency Management in Tumwater, and then requests are made region by region.
North Kitsap Fire and Rescue Chief Dan Smith leads the effort in the Puget Sound, Krysinski said.
EJFR has 42 employees, and about 15-18 have the national wildland certification, he said.
Any wildland fire that has been burning for longer than an hour requires the certification and is classified based on the number of people involved, Krysinski said.
The California fires are in the highest Type 1 category, which involves more than 1,000 responders, he said.
“There are easily 1,000 people with air staff, ground support, firefighters, admins working with tactics and strategy, plus the people feeding them,” Krysinski said.
The emergency assistance compact comes with funding that will be paid by the requesting agencies that will cover both the deployed people and resources as well as the local overtime shifts to backfill regular duty needs, he said.
The operation runs on a “make whole” basis and won’t cost any extra local taxpayer money, Krysinski said.
EJFR has an agreement with its firefighters union to call in off-duty responders to take overtime shifts under these circumstances, he said.
EJFR also sent personnel to California last fall in a similar operation, Chief Jim Walkowski said.
Krysinski added that Washington didn’t have its normal wildfire season this summer, but people should still follow proper permits and take precautionary measures if they plan to burn land debris or yard clippings.
He also said the agency is always looking for volunteers.
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Jefferson County Managing Editor Brian McLean can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 6, or at bmclean@peninsuladailynews.com.
