At the Cal Fire Base Camp at Redwood Acres fire crews from multiple jurisdictions set up shop.
“This is basically a city that’s been set up, that’s here to support all the crews that are working out on the fire”, says Robert Foxworthy of CalFire Sacramento.
The base camp is set up to assist with the Western portion of the Hill Fire in Willow Creek.
“At this base camp, most of our folks are from within California. So this is mainly the base camp that’s supporting the state crews that are within California. We also have a second base camp that’s up in Willow Creek. Then have some of those federal crews that have actually came from throughout the nation”, he says.
In addition to firefighters, there are crews on site to do everything, from administration to equipment repair.
“I can tell you that, assigned to the incident, we have over 2,000 personnel currently out there fighting the fire. So just on this incident, we have individuals that are staying in tents here on the grounds. We also have large sleeper trailers where there’s basically semi-trailers that have beds in them for crews to sleep. And then we also have crews that are going off site and staying at local hotels and motels”, he says.
The fairgrounds will be closed until the fire is contained, but it’s for a good reason.
“The reason that we move into areas like this is here at the fairgrounds we have all the infrastructure we need to support a few thousand individuals. When you go up into some of those more rural areas, we don’t have the infrastructure there that can support that many folks. So, when you see the picture behind me and you look behind me, you see so many trailers and different things that are there to support those crews. That wouldn’t be possible, in those more rural areas”, Foxworthy says.
As far as a departure date, things are still to be determined.
“We can’t give a time now. What I can say is we want to be here as short as possible. The quicker we are able to get the fire contained, to make sure that it’s safe, that it’s no longer a threat, the sooner we can leave. And that’s always our goal. To get this fire put out quickly and get the crews back home and get everything back to normal here in the area”, he says.
Story by Tucker Caraway
