U.S. Military Already Fighting Fires in California, Ready to Do More

The Protection Division now has 500 active-duty troops and a wide range of tools on standby to help with the wildfires in California, mentioned the deputy pentagon press secretary.

“As introduced by the president, 500 active-duty personnel presently stationed at Camp Pendleton, California, are getting ready to assist requests from federal and state authorities with route clearance, commodity distribution, search and rescue, rotary wing, airlift and normal assist, as requested,” mentioned Sabrina Singh throughout a briefing at present. 

These 500 active-duty personnel are from the Marine Corps, she mentioned. 

March Air Reserve Base, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, can also be now serving as a staging base for efforts by the Federal Emergency Administration Company, and Singh additionally mentioned {that a} protection coordinating officer and assist aspect are being activated as properly. 

The division can also be getting ready some 10 Navy-provided helicopters with water supply buckets to help with aerial fireplace suppression, Singh mentioned. These Navy helicopters, together with aircrew, are coming from California’s Naval Station North Island, Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendelton and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.

“Beneath a long-standing memorandum of settlement with CAL FIRE, active-duty items in Naval Area Southwest are ready to supply plane and aircrew to assist the firefighting efforts,” Singh mentioned. “These items are skilled and yearly licensed by CAL FIRE to supply supplemental firefighting functionality when requested by the state of California and permitted by the [secretary of defense.]” 

Greater than 800 Nationwide Guard personnel from California, Wyoming and Nevada are already on the bottom or have been activated to supply help. The Guard can also be working 10 helicopters for firefighting and search and rescue operations.

“This quantity is anticipated to extend over the following 24 hours,” Singh mentioned. 

Moreover, eight Modular Aerial Hearth Combating Methods, or MAFFS-equipped C-130 plane are being activated underneath state authorities. The primary two, Singh mentioned, are anticipated to start operations at present, whereas the remaining six are anticipated to be prepared by Sunday. 

The firefighting operations in California are coordinated by the Federal Emergency Administration Company in live performance with CAL FIRE and the California Governor’s Workplace of Emergency Companies. The Protection Division, Singh mentioned, is a supporting company to the hassle. 

“There’s so many alternative fires raging in California,” Singh mentioned. “We’ve to work in coordination with the state and FEMA with regards to how we handle every single fireplace. And never simply the fires; it is the street clearing, it is the administration, it is how folks get again to their properties. All of this knits collectively very rigorously and in an intricate method that’s going to take some time, it’ll take some coordinating.” 

Singh mentioned DOD assets work greatest when there’s a plan in place to ensure they’re used probably the most effectively. 

“You simply do not wish to surge a bunch of functionality and assets right into a area with no full plan,” she mentioned. “So that is what we’re doing, and we’re working very intently with the state to make it possible for we’re getting their wants met.”