Berkeley firefighters are helping in LA. Here’s how you can support too

Firefighters had made progress on some of the larger fires menacing Southern California by Jan. 10 but winds, which had finally subsided, were expected to pick back up on Sunday. Credit: Calfire

The Berkeley Fire Department has dispatched an engine truck and four first responders to help battle the fires that have burned tens of thousands of acres and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses in Southern California. Meanwhile local, state and national aid agencies are ramping up fundraising efforts to help the Californians who have lost their homes or been forced to evacuate.

The BFD captain, driver and two firefighter-paramedics who left Tuesday joined dozens more emergency workers from Alameda County, and more than 7,500 from fire and emergency agencies around the state who have headed to LA, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office and county and local officials. President Joe Biden has mobilized federal disaster agencies as well, and pledged federal funds to backstop the disaster response for months to come.

BFD’s team, assigned to the massive Palisades Fire northwest of coastal Santa Monica, “have been involved in structure protection along with the rest of their team which is a mix of personnel and apparatus from various Alameda County fire departments,” said Dafina Dailey, a spokesperson for the department. Their assignment could last up to two weeks, she said.

The fires, checkered throughout the Los Angeles metropolitan area and fanned by winds approaching 100 mph in places, have claimed at least 10 lives and wiped entire neighborhoods off the map. More than 150,000 people were under evacuation orders Friday. The ignition sources for the fires were still not known.

The Palisades Fire, at 20,438 acres, was 8% contained as of midday Friday, according to Calfire. The Eaton fire north and northwest of Pasadena, at 13,690 acres, was only 3% contained.

Those two larger fires, which have burned since Tuesday, were continuing to grow Friday but, with winds finally subsiding, their rates of growth had finally slowed, the Associated Press reported Friday morning. However, the Santa Ana winds, similar to the hazardous Diablo Winds in Northern California, were expected to pick back up Sunday.

Firefighters had made much more progress on the smaller Kenneth, Hurst and Lidia fires, which were all 1,000 acres or smaller and were between 35% and 75% contained as of Friday. The smallest fire in the area, the Archer Fire, ignited Friday and had burned 19 acres.

Alameda County is pitching in

Berkeley’s next-door neighbor Oakland also sent fire personnel to the area.

Michael Hunt, public information officer for OFD, told Berkeleyside’s sister newsroom The Oaklandside that four Oakland firefighters arrived in Los Angeles early Wednesday morning as part of a California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services “strike team.” The 16-person team also consisted of firefighters from the Fremont, Alameda County, and Hayward fire departments.

Also on Wednesday morning, four more Oakland firefighters departed for Southern California as part of a 16-person “local government task force,” with crews from the Albany, Alameda County, and Fremont fire departments.

Four additional OFD firefighters were requested and deployed to Los Angeles around 1 p.m. Wednesday, bringing the number of deployed Oakland firefighters to 12, according to Hunt.

The dispatch of a dozen Oakland firefighters “in no way compromises our capacity locally,” Hunt said, adding that OFD is preparing to send more personnel if needed.

Dafina Dailey, a spokesperson for BFD, said the agency has an internal policy which dictates “the resources we can dispatch while still being able to meet our own operational needs and goals.”

For mutual-aid deployments such as this, the state typically reimburses cities like Oakland that respond to fires outside their jurisdiction, but the details of reimbursements are unknown at this time, said Hunt.

Mutual aid is an integral component of fire response, since fire doesn’t much care about jurisdictional boundaries. BFD has mutual aid agreements with nearby agencies. The California Fire Service and Rescues Emergency Mutual Aid System has its origins in wartime civil defense and evolved after 1945 into a regionalized system where neighboring agencies work to backstop each other when a fire threatens to overwhelm one agency or another.

Firefighters from Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington and Utah had also joined in the effort as of Friday, according to Calfire.

How to help victims of LA fires from the Bay Area

The Los Angeles Times, LAist, CBS News and ABC7 have compiled lists of local, statewide and national agencies that offer resources for disaster survivors, deploy volunteers and are otherwise helping those displaced or worse by the fires. Here are just a few of the major ones:

The American Red Cross provides shelter beds, food and other services for people displaced by fires and other catastrophes. You can make a donation by calling 800-RED-CROSS (800-733-2767) or texting the word CAWILDFIRES to 90999, or sign up as a volunteer for future emergencies.The California Fire Foundation, which supports firefighters and families of those who die in the line of duty, also offers aid to fire and disaster victims and accepts donations online.The fundraising platform GoFundMe has collated a list of verified fundraisers raising money for people affected by this week’s fires in Southern California. Like the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army is also offering shelter, food and other services to evacuees, as well as to firefighters and law enforcement officers. They are accepting donations online or by check.