NAMPA, Idaho — Nampa Fire Department Station 5 firefighter Conner Molyneux reflected on the unusual behavior of natural disasters. “Sometimes when Mother Nature is angry, she doesn’t react the way that you would expect,” he said.
For two weeks, firefighters from across the West descended on Southern California to tackle the devastating wildfires. From Idaho, more than a dozen rigs from 25 agencies assisted — Nampa Fire was assigned to the Palisades Fire.
“So we were driving, I believe it’s the I-10 that turns into the Pacific Coast Highway,” Molyneux said. “And as we were driving down the I-10, we had seven or eight Idaho engines, and there was a whole bunch of people that were honking at us and waving at us and saying thank you, doing little heart signs out their window. So that was cool.”
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Assigned to defend against flare-ups in the Palisades hills, the environment and weather were new experiences for Idaho’s structural firefighters. Molyneux described the sight of palm trees following the fire. Some palms had undamaged tops and trunks, with the centers blackened by fire. Winds were so strong that the fire was blown across the area, torching the middle of trees.
“Throughout my career, I will be studying fire behavior and how fire reacts,” Molyneux said. “With the devastation that was down there, there were multiple things that are just almost unexplainable, from my understanding, that comes with the situation that the city of LA was dealt with.”
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