SAND HOLLOW, Idaho — Fire crews from the Sand Hollow Fire Protection District were getting ready to head to California early Wednesday morning after the state issued an emergency request for federal assistance to help fight the Palisades Fire.
Drake Fullerton, a firefighter at Sand Hollow, said, "For me and a few other guys, we've been packing our bags and getting ready. Then, about 1 o'clock, we started getting our rigs ready."
Caden Galemore, another firefighter from Sand Hollow, added, "We're still getting the kinks worked out, but I found out that we were getting called out and heading out around 9:30 a.m. this morning."
The Idaho Office of Emergency Management said it is evaluating available resources within the state, such as personnel and equipment, to support the ongoing firefighting efforts in Southern California.
Crews at Sand Hollow received a text Wednesday morning telling them to prepare to head to Los Angeles. They'll be on the road for roughly 15 hours over the next two days, but all efforts and costs associated with deploying resources will be covered by the state of California.
For Sand Hollow firefighters, the majority of the day was spent getting themselves ready. "I just had to get everything packed this morning and get all the engines ready," a firefighter said.
The National Interagency Fire Center in Boise is helping coordinate fire responses across the West, with requests out for 50 fire engines, 25 hand crews, air tankers, and helicopters.
Their meteorologists are watching the forecast closely and expect winds to die down over the weekend. However, with winds expected to pick back up next week, firefighters anticipate that it will take an extraordinary effort to put out the blazes.
"These are very large fires; there's still a lot of room to grow," an official said. "We do have agency aircraft that map these fires, so they're able to get real-time mapping and acreage, exactly where the flames are."
