First responders from the Bay Area are among those descending on Maui to help.
Chris Landry is Oakland’s acting assistant fire chief and program manager for California task force four, which sent one member as part of a 30 person rapid response team. They are arriving to the area on Friday.
“They are working with first responders that are there to determine what the needs are of that home agency,” he said.
Landry understands what’s at stake. He has deployed to disasters all over - including florida for the deadly condo collapse in 2021. In that disaster, his job was to ensure responding firefighters were operating safely and none one got hurt.
“This can be very dangerous,” he said. “When we’re working 12-14 hours a day making sure, they’re getting proper rotation the crews didn’t want to quit. They wanted to keep digging. They wanted to make sure that they found every single persons loved one.”
In the East Bay, more 100 than firefighters from different agencies came together Friday to hone skills that help when the next fire breaks out. The Moraga-Orinda Fire District hosted a wildland fire training burn. It removed hazardous fuels and offered teams a chance to practice before the next crisis.
“Helping them out with this training exercise, which is also a benefit to our firefighters because we get to practice our wildland fire suppression skills,” said Dennis Rein with the Moraga-Orinda Fire District.
Christie Smith has more in the video above.
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