As many UCLA students watch the rampant brushfire in Southern
California from the safety of their rooms, others close to the
Bruin family have been called upon to face the neighboring
firestorms.
Los Angeles Fire Department Station 37, less than a 20-minute
walk away from campus, on Veteran Avenue, has dispatched strike
teams to provide relief to firefighters who have been in the field
for days.
These are the same firefighters who were at UCLA Homecoming and
who respond to automatic fire alarms at UCLA. The station answers
around 10 to 15 calls a day and is in one of the busiest areas in
Los Angeles County, serving UCLA, the Wilshire Corridor and Sunset
Boulevard.
A strike team from the station was sent out to Yucaipa Wednesday
afternoon and could be going to Big Bear, Wrightwood and Lake
Arrowhead if the wildfires move east, said Armando Jaimes, a
captain at Station 37.
A strike team consists of five members and one fire engine whose
purpose is to respond to spreading fires.
The fires in the area close to Yucaipa are forest fires instead
of brushfires. These fires “crown” the tops of trees,
which fire engines and firefighters cannot easily reach. The team
will join the other hundred or so strike teams already there,
Jaimes said.
The Station 37 strike team is expected to be there for four or
five days straight on 24-hour shifts with little or no rest and
working under harsh conditions.
“You are lucky if you even get a little water because it
is really hot up there,” said Darin Cook, a firefighter with
Station 37.
His fellow firefighter, UCLA alumnus Don Thompson, suffered
second- and third-degree burns on his leg when he helped fight
forest fires near homes in Highland over the weekend, Jaimes said.
Thompson, a former UCLA track star, serves as both a firefighter
and a paramedic.
On Monday, Jaimes and firefighter Robert Wedlock were two of
five firefighters from the station sent to monitor the Simi Valley
and Val Verde fires which were seen approaching the 118
Freeway.
It was thought the fire might spread because of the high winds,
which Jaimes estimated at around 25 to 30 miles per hour. The fire
retreated back into Santa Clarita.
Although Jaimes, Cook and Wedlock have not seen much action with
these latest fires, they expressed a desire to serve.
“This is what we train for and what we go out to do.
We’re anticipating going out there this Saturday to relieve
(firefighters) because the fire is looking like its heading east
into the Big Bear Lake area, where evacuation has already
started,” Cook said.
Jaimes, who has family in the burning Stevenson Ranch area,
agrees.
“I love to go out there and give the guys relief,”
he said.