Valley Firefighters help in Los Angeles’ Fires

By Anna Pier

(Note: Firefighters pictured in a photo taken in 2024; they are not the team that went to L.A.)

Sonoma Valley Fire District has sent two engines and eight firefighters, including one volunteer firefighter on each engine, to Los Angeles to assist with the devastating fires in that area. The engines left the evening of January 7, arriving on January 8. Two Chiefs also went separately to L.A., and were deployed on the Eaton Fire, which has ravaged Altadena. The engines went to the Pacific Palisades Fire. The Valley firefighters will be gone two weeks, according to Sonoma Valley Fire Chief Steve Akre.

Every fire “incident” has an incident Commander. With fires the scale of the current Los Angeles fires, special Incident Management Teams are brought in that include both Federal and Cal Fire personnel. The Sonoma Valley Strike team leaders would have checked in upon arrival with an Incident Manager. Considering the scale and severity of the fires, Akre thought the teams were put to work right away, without a period of staging.

One of the engines sent by SV Fire District is the state Office of Emergency Services engine (OES), paid for by the State of California and housed at Station 3, in Agua Caliente, where it is used as a back-up. Akre said the old Valley of the Moon Fire Department always had an OES engine. The Fire District’s responsibility is to staff the engine.

The other engine that went to L.A. is from the Glen Ellen station. The firefighters who went were all “available,” stated Akre, “no one is forced to go.” Following department protocol, Acre declined to identify the firefighters by name.

In a previous interview with the Sun, the Fire Chief had had said of his staff, “At its core it’s a special Fire District staff – their hearts are in it completely, and that translates.” Also, it was important to Akre to assure the community that “when we send our firefighters to help with fires in other areas, we’re still always fully staffed here in the Valley.”

Akre told the Sun that Sonoma County sent a total of 15 engines and ten leaders, including chiefs, to Los Angeles. He explained this is part of the California mutual aid agreement, and per that agreement, resources are organized in Strike Teams, five firefighters to an engine with one or two leaders. All Fire Departments in Sonoma County have three Strike Teams. Akre was recently elected President of the Sonoma County Fire Chiefs Association for a second two-year term.