Firefighters assist with Los Angeles blazes

By Nicole Montesano

Smoke Signals staff writer

LOS ANGELES -- The fires began on Tuesday, Jan. 7.

Hot and dry Santa Ana winds blowing with hurricane force drove the flames across the drought-stricken landscape and into Los Angeles neighborhoods. Over the following three and a half weeks, eight fires killed 29 people and destroyed thousands of homes. Calls for aid went out almost immediately. By the second day of the fires, the Grand Ronde Natural Resources Fire Protection and Management Program was pulling together a crew to send.

Wildland firefighters Steve Ashby, Max Lynn, Josh Royse and Tribal member Nick Larsen drove for two days to reach San Diego County in southern California. They downplayed their response to the call.

“We typically do respond nationwide, so this type of assignment isn’t out of the ordinary for us,” Ashby said.

Although winter is not usually their busy season, answering calls for help from across the country is business as usual.

Lynn noted that California “was basically calling for all help that was willing to come down there, as well as having a lot of firefighters on standby in case of another fire were to pop up. … And you know, there were fires that were happening, new, while we were down there and because there were so many personnel down in the area, they were able to stop a lot of those fires and keep them small.”

Larsen said being on standby involved a constant state of readiness.

 “We always had a plan,” he said. “We were kind of on the sidelines, which was fine.”

Ashby said the out-of-state firefighters were there to support the local crews so that they would have enough resources available.

Fire Management and Protection Program Manager Andrew Puerini, however, noted the import of the response team.

“Four of our most experienced staff were dispatched to the Southern California fire storm, to assist with the complex emerging wildfire incidents,” Puerini said in an email. “Like many other firefighters, they selflessly put their regular lives on hold to answer the call for help…For almost a month, they worked repeated 16-hour shifts, assisting the local Cal Fire resources in their response to the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history.”

The fires were not the deadliest in even the last few years: The Lahaina fire in Maui during August 2023 killed 102 people and was the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century, while the Camp Fire in Paradise, California in 2018 took 85 lives.

Nonetheless, they were devastating for the region, charring tens of thousands of acres and leaving whole neighborhoods in ruins.

“To have a fire like that in the middle of January is unprecedented,” Lynn said. “Also, the low humidity and the high winds were a factor. A lot of the country were in the off season, so it allowed a lot of these guys to be able to respond; federal and state resources, as well as municipal departments.”

And although the four are seasoned firefighters, they noted that the situation was significantly different than western Oregon.

“The topography, the environment and the type of vegetation is very different,” Royse said. “In our region, we have dense timber. All their stuff was very fast-moving brush, chapparal. So that’s a very different aspect and it has to be fought in a different way as well.”

Ashby agreed, noting that it was a faster-moving, more active fire. “You also don’t have the road systems like we do in the rural areas,” he said. “We have logging roads; they don’t, so the road systems aren’t as good out in the woods.”

Many of the neighborhoods were located in what firefighters call the “wildland interface,” where homes are scattered across a rural area, creating a situation that combines the most dangerous traits of rural and urban fires.

“You’ve got people’s homes and their lives in the mix, where a lot of times we’re fighting in a very remote area, where there’s high value, high timber and we’re fighting for the nature, but you don’t have people’s lives at stake,” Ashby said. “They all are unique; but we have to focus on the same way; our equipment and its readiness and our gear and its readiness and ourselves and our readiness. It was kind of a good test of our readiness.”

In Oregon, a focus on mitigating fuels and using approaches such as thinning projects and prescribed burns can help areas be prepared to face local fire seasons, Royse said.

All of the firefighters said they were proud to have joined the response for California and would gladly have done more.

“We all feel like we wish we could have done more,” Ashby said. “We did what was asked of us, but when you are a part of something so grandiose, it’s kind of tough to have not been in the thick of it.”

Typically, he said, the Tribe starts responding to spring blazes in the southwest, where fire season begins earlier than in Oregon.

“It definitely gives you a sense of pride and purpose in going out there and representing the Tribe and making a difference in helping people,” Larsen said. “It’s rewarding,”

The Natural Resources Department has managed a wildland fire program for almost 35 years, beginning in 1990, Puerini said. Teams are often dispatched throughout the country.

“As a result of year-round training, involving physically and mental conditioning well above and beyond many regular occupations, our firefighters provided noteworthy wildfire protection, represented the Tribe in a positive light, and returned home tired but safe and in good health,” he said. “It’s because of our dedicated firefighting team that our program maintains a 35-year tradition of distinction and one of, if not the best, reputations in the wildfire management community, both within Tribal communities and throughout the country.”