LAS VEGAS, Nevada – Firefighters from southern Nevada are in southern California fighting historic wildfires. A team of Henderson firefighters arrived in the West LA area early Thursday morning and by the evening were battling the Palisades Fire, the most destructive fire in LA history and potentially the most expensive in US history.
A video shared with FOX5 shows a Henderson fire engine outside a burning California home. A house fire is not uncommon for the Nevada crew, but having an entire community destroyed by a firestorm is unprecedented for any firefighter.
“This is unreal,” Henderson Battalion Chief Matt Truax told FOX5 Friday. Truax claims that in his 25 years of firefighting, he has never seen anything like this before.
“There would be 5-6 homes destroyed in a row…There are burned-out cars all over the streets. It’s horrible to think about what those people lost.
Truax described how there was nothing left in some of those homes.
Henderson crews are now patrolling a Palisades neighborhood for spot fires and working 24-hour shifts. In between shifts, they stay at a Cal Fire base camp on Zuma Beach.
“Cal Fire sets up a very large camp and a lot of people show up from all over,” Truax told me. Southern Nevada crews are fighting both the Palisades Fire near the ocean and the Eaton Fire near Pasadena.
Another video shared with FOX5 from the iconic Rose Bowl shows how it has become a staging area for thousands of firefighters. Californians are relieved that Nevada firefighters are on the scene, as multiple fires burn throughout Los Angeles County.
“They’re driving by, honking, waving, giving us thumbs up wherever we go,” Truax remembers. Nobody is happier to see the reinforcements than the local firefighters.
“They’re amazed that we were assigned this fire from Nevada and we’re here to help,” revealed Truax. They’ll need all the assistance they can get. The Santa Ana winds are expected to return Monday.
“Just consider how strong the winds are. Winds gusting over 60 mph are uprooting trees, which is unbelievable,” Truax stated.
A total of 46 firefighters from the Las Vegas Valley fire departments, including the Clark County Fire Department, Las Vegas Fire & Rescue, and Henderson Fire Department, are providing assistance and resources.
The deployment is expected to last between one and two weeks. Governor Lombardo has mobilized firefighters from across the state to assist California through a mutual aid agreement.
