Firefighters from across the North American continent have converged onto Los Angeles to fight the wildfires. From firefighters on the front lines to the cooks who feed thousands of responders everyday, fighting a wildfires is a monumental operation.
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Firefighters from an Oregon strike team survey damage at a Sunset Blvd. home leveled by the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades community of Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. Firefighters work from a deck as the Palisades Fire burns a beachfront property Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025 in Malibu, Calif. A group of firefighters traverse a steep hill while battling the Palisades Fire in the Mandeville Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles, Calif., Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. Lucas Hirst, a firefighter with San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District, is seen on top of a water tender during sunset at the Palisades Fire in Pacific Palisades, Calif., Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. Firefighters monitor hot spots after the Kenneth Fire burnt through hills in the West Hills section of Los Angeles, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. A firefighter watches as flames from the Mountain Fire consume a home in Camarillo, Calif., Nov. 6, 2024. Firefighters protect what is left of homes from the Palisades Fire, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Malibu, Calif. A firefighter from Costa Mesa works to extinguish a fire burning a home on Valleylights Drive during the Eaton fire in the Hastings Ranch community of Pasadena, Calif., early Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. Firefighters work to keep flames from spreading through the Shadowbrook apartment complex as a wildfire burns through Paradise, Calif., on Nov. 9, 2018. Firefighters work to keep flames from spreading through the Shadowbrook apartment complex as a wildfire burns through Paradise, Calif., on Nov. 9, 2018. After a 24-hour shift battling blazes in the Pacific Palisades, firefighters from Pleasant Hills, Ore., rest in their vehicle Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025, in Los Angeles. After a 24-hour shift battling blazes in the Pacific Palisades, firefighters from Pleasant Hills, Ore., rest in their vehicle Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025, in Los Angeles. Inmate firefighters battling the Palisades Fire construct hand line to protect homes along Mandeville Canyon Rd. on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025, in Los Angeles. Inmate firefighters battling the Palisades Fire construct hand line to protect homes along Mandeville Canyon Rd. on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025, in Los Angeles. Firefighters from an Oregon strike team survey damage at a Sunset Blvd. home leveled by the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades community of Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. Firefighters from an Oregon strike team survey damage at a Sunset Blvd. home leveled by the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades community of Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. Firefighters work from a deck as the Palisades Fire burns a beachfront property Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025 in Malibu, Calif. Firefighters work from a deck as the Palisades Fire burns a beachfront property Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025 in Malibu, Calif. A group of firefighters traverse a steep hill while battling the Palisades Fire in the Mandeville Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles, Calif., Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. A group of firefighters traverse a steep hill while battling the Palisades Fire in the Mandeville Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles, Calif., Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. Lucas Hirst, a firefighter with San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District, is seen on top of a water tender during sunset at the Palisades Fire in Pacific Palisades, Calif., Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. Lucas Hirst, a firefighter with San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District, is seen on top of a water tender during sunset at the Palisades Fire in Pacific Palisades, Calif., Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. Firefighters monitor hot spots after the Kenneth Fire burnt through hills in the West Hills section of Los Angeles, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. Firefighters monitor hot spots after the Kenneth Fire burnt through hills in the West Hills section of Los Angeles, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. A firefighter watches as flames from the Mountain Fire consume a home in Camarillo, Calif., Nov. 6, 2024. A firefighter watches as flames from the Mountain Fire consume a home in Camarillo, Calif., Nov. 6, 2024. Firefighters protect what is left of homes from the Palisades Fire, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Malibu, Calif. Firefighters protect what is left of homes from the Palisades Fire, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Malibu, Calif. A firefighter from Costa Mesa works to extinguish a fire burning a home on Valleylights Drive during the Eaton fire in the Hastings Ranch community of Pasadena, Calif., early Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. A firefighter from Costa Mesa works to extinguish a fire burning a home on Valleylights Drive during the Eaton fire in the Hastings Ranch community of Pasadena, Calif., early Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. , a fire crew’s radios crackled to life, warning of nearby flames as helicopter blades thudded overhead. Juan Tapia — an experienced firefighter from Morelia, Mexico — tore out scrub brush as tall as himself, just days after arriving in California. And Karley Desrosiers, fresh from British Columbia, scrambled to communicate the latest update on the fire to an anxious public.and destroyed thousands of homes. They could be some of the costliest wildfires in U.S. history, and required the mobilization of immense firefighting power from across the North American continent. From Portland to Houston, hundreds of out-of-state firefighters said goodbye to their families and loaded into engines bound for Los Angeles. Over 1,000 inmates in California filed onto hand crews in prison orange. Water bombers with “Quebec” stamped across their side swept over the blazes, as a Mexican fire brigade touched down and set to work. Nearly two dozen from the Navajo Scouts, a Bureau of Indian Affairs-managed program, joined the fight.Tennis player Taylor Fritz is donating Australian Open prize money to LA wildfire relief fundsThe engines of the operation are called incident command posts: small cities, rapidly erected in parking lots, fairgrounds or stadiums, that act as the headquarters for the some 5,000 responders on the Palisades fire alone. At these command posts, the smoke-soaked clothes of hundreds of firefighters are washed everyday and meals are churned out by the tens of thousands. Those working behind the scenes do everything from quickly negotiating with landowners for spots to land helicopters to creating a new, roughly 50-page action plan everyday sent via QR code to everybody working the fire.On sloping hills north of Los Angeles this week, in the burn scar of the Eaton fire, crews were combing the landscape for any remaining flames and digging line when a plume of smoke set voices crackling over the radio. As the winds picked up, a previously unburnt section of dense brush and trees torched, sending flames and embers — the potential start of another fire — into the sky. Homes sat maybe a mile away. Firefighters scrambled toward the blaze, then two helicopters screamed in overhead, their sirens blaring to warn off crews, before dumping water and retardant. As the helicopters turned away, the crews quickly moved in, tearing at brush and cutting through trees with chainsaws to cut off the fires’ fuel. One stood with his radio directing the helicopters on the height and location of the drops before they returned, the crews dispersing under the ear-piercing sirens. It repeated until the fire was out, the firefighters’ huffing, their yellow jackets smattered with gray from ash, dirt and splotches of chainsaw oil. To the west, on the biggest fire in California — the Palisades fire — Desrosiers from British Columbia was working out of an incident command post, the biggest she’s ever seen. The post runs for miles along the coast; it fills the beachside parking lots with fire engines, mobile kitchens, tents, equipment repair shops, gear depots, laundry services, medical staff, storage, and about anything else they would need. “The biggest learning curve is seeing how all those people work together to keep those things together seamlessly,” said Desrosiers, whose job as public information officer is to provide journalists and the public with updates on the fires. Back in British Columbia, Desrosiers might have worked alongside one other public information officer. At the Palisades fire, it’s somewhere near 50.“It’s a lot of camaraderie and I think in the fire world, especially back home, it’s like a big family, and that’s how you feel in a fire camp, is that you’re surrounded by people who really do have your back,” Desrosiers said. Rotating through the same incident command post as Desrosiers are firefighters from Oregon, including Sam Scott, who camped out in nearby Santa Monica. They pop in to grab batteries for their radios, eat meals, and pick up what Scott described as an 8-pound lunch bag replete with meals for a 24 hour shift. For those long hours, Scott scours decimated neighborhoods, defending the homes that didn’t burn and searching for anything left burning, small fires or smoldering beams. Scott stepped through flattened home after flattened home, where the only things left standing are charred chimneys and car husks. “I have a kid and a family, and just thinking about all the memories I’ve made with my family in my home,” said Scott, clearing his throat. “It can very easily make me cry. It’s a very heavy feeling. It’s someone’s entire life.” By the end of those shifts, Scott and others are exhausted, retiring to clean and fix gear, before crawling into sleeping bags. It was that exhaustion that Tapia, one of the the 30-person fire brigade from Mexico’s National Forestry Commission, saw on the faces of U.S. firefighters when he first arrived at camp over the weekend. They brightened at the Mexican brigade’s arrival, said Tapia. “We came with the energy and attitude to help our brothers from the United States.”Associated Press video journalists and reporters Christopher Sherman in Mexico City, Hallie Golden in Seattle, Ty O’Neil in Los Angeles, and Sejal Govindarao in Phoenix contributed to this report.Bedayn is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.Bedayn is a statehouse reporter for The Associated Press based in Denver. He is a Report for America corps member.
Los Angeles Area Wildfires Mexico Canada Fires Los Angeles California General News U.S. News Karley Desrosiers Juan Tapia Canada Government
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