The Fall City Fire Department (King County Fire District 27) sent one fire engine and two firefighters to Los Angeles to help with the ongoing wildfires.

Fall City Fire Captain Scott Fleming and firefighter Parker Dumas, along with two members of the Kirkland Fire Department, started their drive the morning of Jan. 9. They are on a 14-day deployment and will be gone for a total of 18 days, including travel time, according to Fall City Fire Chief Brian Culp.

“The good part about our zone, the northern part of the county, is that if we have open seats somewhere else, then we will just interswitch personnel,” he said. “Sometimes if we’re not going to send a unit, but we have a firefighter that can go, they may go on an Eastside truck or a Kirkland truck.”

Fire departments across King County sent a total of 12 engines and three strike teams to aid Californians, Culp said. According to the Washington Military Department, the state of Washington sent 11 strike teams made up of 55 fire engines, 13 command vehicles and 220 personnel.

Culp got a call the morning of Jan. 8 with a resource order — a request for resources from another agency — as part of the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, a mutual aid agreement among the country’s states and territories that enables governors to share resources across states.

If Washington were dealing with wildfires, firefighters would come from out of state to help the departments here, too, Culp said.

“Looking at it from a standpoint of the bomb cyclone that came through … you had a whole bunch of people coming in from all over, from even out of the state, to help out,” he said. “Whether it’s power companies or fire departments or anything else, it’s to build on that bigger picture.”

Ultimately, sending aid to California benefits Washington communities, too, Culp said, since those team members will now know what it’s like to fight large wildfires.

“The three strike teams that King County sent down, they bring back a lot of valuable experience,” Culp said. “If something were to happen here, they have that experience of being at other fires.”

A firefighter stands against a backdrop of wildfire in California. Photo courtesy of the Fall City Fire Department