Firefighters From Mexico Aid California in Ending Record-Breaking Fires
October 24, 2020
On August 19, a hundred firefighters from Mexico’s 31 states arrived in California to aid in battling the intense wildfires.
As California is a breeding ground for wildfires, many wildfires appeared all over the state of California on August 16, 2020. According to Inciweb, one of those fires was the August fire incident, which was caused by a series of lightning strikes that began around 7:15 am.
The wildfire had 38 fires in different places due to natural causes. The hot and windy weather caused the fires to spread and cover more acres of land.
In response to California’s request for aid, Mexico volunteered one hundred firefighters to help during the urgent situation. Due to 31 of the 32 states of Mexico not having any fire activity, Mexico was able to send reinforcements. Many of the firefighters were trained in California to be able to handle the surging fires.
Along with the firefighters sent from Mexico, there were already 17,500 personnel trying to stop the violent fire from spreading.
Many of the firefighters working were thankful to Mexico for sending support.
According to SFGATE, “Thankfully, our Department of Defense and international partners are able to support us in this time of need…” stated the Bureau of Land Management Fire Operations, Ken Schmid.
Along with Mexico’s reinforcements, Canada and the U.S military also came to aid per the U.S. Forest Service request. The last largest recorded fire in California was the Mendocino Complex Fire which burned around 459,000 acres of land. The August Complex Fire broke this record having burned nearly 840,000 acres in a month. Burning this many acres, this marked it as the largest wildfire in California’s history.
In total there are roughly 3 million acres burned from all the fires in California.
According to CNN, “Fires do not have borders, fires do not have different languages and cultures,“ mentioned Eduardo Cruz, a national fire director from Mexico. In the end, we all speak the same language when it comes to fighting fire.”
So far, multiple residential locations had to evacuate. There have even been evacuation orders in Tulare County, and, Sequoia National Forest closed off the area north of the Tulare County line.
The Red Cross has set up centers for the evacuees at Porterville community college and northeastern community building.
According to the Los Angeles Times, There are 31 confirmed deaths and about 200 missing people from all the California fires.
The air quality has gotten better since the beginning of the august fires. The bad air quality has now reached a moderate level and the once smokey skies have now become somewhat clear.
There is much appreciation for the firefighters that came to help California. Their presence has slowed the fire and stopped it from reaching other cities in California.
