Update: Tri-Cities firefighters part of strike teams heading to attack California fires

Firefighters from Kennewick and Pasco were on standby Monday, hours after getting word they’d be joining crews throughout the West in fighting the ravaging California wildfires.

However, a unit from Benton County Fire District 1 and Walla Walla County already is on its way as part of a different strike team.

Cal Fire had requested strike teams of engines to respond to Northern California to help, Brian Ellis said Monday morning.

Ellis is deputy fire marshal for the Kennewick Fire Department.

The local mobilization region had identified several strike teams for fire crews from Southeast and Central Washington to respond through the state-to-state Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) and state mobilization process, he said Monday in a news release.

Kennewick and Pasco each planned to send a wildland engine with three firefighters on board.

They were going to team up with Chelan County and, once at the California border, would have received orders to proceed to the Kincade Fire in Sonoma County or another fire burning in the state.

“California has a robust internal mutual aid system of move-ups and coverage,” Ellis said. “Our units will integrate into that system and receive assignments ranging from urban interface structure protection to backfill of existing stations to other active firefighting activities in communities under significant duress from high Santa Ana winds and explosive fire conditions.”

The team was then placed in a holding pattern while waiting for final approval, and later was told they won’t be leaving Washington state at this time.

Both Ellis and Ben Shearer, the Pasco Fire Department spokesman, say their crews may be on an indefinite hold, but remain ready to go if called again.

Ellis didn’t know the reason for the cancellation, but said it could be due to a shift in environmental conditions so fewer firefighters are needed right now or a matter of finances at the state level.

The team of firefighters from Benton and Walla Walla counties that already left is led by Don Taylor from Benton County Fire District 1. A strike team includes five units.

California’s biggest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, cut off power to an estimated 2.5 million people in the northern part of the state over the weekend in yet another round of blackouts aimed at preventing windblown electrical equipment from sparking more fires, reported the Associated Press.

The fire that broke out last week amid Sonoma County’s vineyards and wineries north of San Francisco destroyed 94 buildings, including 40 homes, and threatening 80,000 more structures, authorities told the AP.

Nearly 200,000 people were under evacuation orders, mostly from the city of Santa Rosa.

In Southern California, the blaze on the west side of Los Angeles erupted before dawn Monday and roared up slopes into wealthy neighborhoods, threatening thousands of homes. Tens of thousands of people were ordered to clear out, the AP reported.

This story was originally published October 28, 2019 at 9:08 AM.