MORE THAN JUST A TEAM

by Staff Sgt Eddie Siguenza
California National Guard
Nov. 18, 2020

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — It was in May, a short half-year ago, when Thom Porter stood in front of a California wildfire leadership team and made a bold prediction:

“This year is definitely stacking up to be more difficult than last year,” said the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) director during Wild Fire Preparedness Week. “Last year we had a slow start to our peak fire season. That’s not going to be the same this year. We’ve already started burning. We’re already 400 fires ahead of our average through this time of year. They’re not getting big yet, but that’s right around the corner.”

With leaders from the California National Guard, U.S. Department of Forest Service, California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) — the key organizations during wildfire season — and other state agencies flanking Porter, the CAL FIRE director got even bolder:

“We know over the last several years we’ve had drought conditions that caused 147 million trees to die in the Sierras. Those trees are still out there. No amount of rain is going to bring those trees back.”

Four months later … boom.

Today California has been engaged in its worst fire season ever. This year has set fire records, nothing more staggering than roughly 4.2 million acres burned so far — and it’s still early November — with 1.4 million acres coming just from one fire, the August Complex Fire in Northern California. Technically this fire consumed more land than the size of New York City (193,700 acres) and the state of Rhode Island (775,900 acres) combined.

Five of the top six wildfires in state history happened in 2020, all of them igniting since August. More than 9,000 fires have started since January 2020.

“We as a state are not immune to disasters,” said Mark Ghilarducci, director, Cal OES. “We understand that we are in a time of uncertainty (with the coronavirus pandemic and political issues on the horizon). But we do know, with certainty, that we do have wildfires. It is really incumbent of us to work as a team. It really is a one team, one fight effort.”

Almost every firefighting asset of the California National Guard was involved in California's worst fire season ever, most notably from July to September 2020.

The team included more than 85,000 firefighters — roughly 3,000 from the California National Guard — to tackle the wildfire threat. Civilians as well as local, state and federal agencies were all aboard the gauntlet of squads helping contain the state’s devastating opponent.

“We’ve gone way beyond our normalcy as far as getting firefighting assistance,” said CAL FIRE’s Daniel Berlant, public information officer. “This, by far, is the largest wildfire season in history.
We’ve tapped every available resource … and more.”

Berlant highlighted out-of-state assistance as well, as the support call stretched internationally. Responses came from France, Finland
and even Israel, to name a few.

“Like I said, we’re way beyond our normal needs for fire support,” Berlant added.

Just about every year Cal Guard’s aerial assets — CH-47 Chinook and UH-60 Black Hawk teams — are heavily relied upon and they were utilized on more than a dozen fires. Our helicopter squads were joined by assets from Nevada, Wisconsin and Utah National Guards as well.

“The Wisconsin team has been a true value added to Joint Task Force Phoenix,” said Col. David L. Hall, commander, Cal Guard 40th Combat Aviation Brigade and JTF Phoenix commanding officer. “We’re thankful for their assistance and proud to include them into the firefighting team here in California. We are lucky to have them out here.”

“It’s a very rewarding experience when people ask for help and we can go and provide that assistance,” said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Mike Tomblin of the Wisconsin Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion (Assault), 147th Aviation Regiment, 64th Troop Command. “It’s really an honor to be part of this California team. Whatever we can do to help, we’ll do.”

Cal Guard’s Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System (MAFFS) team from the 146th Airlift Wing combined assets with Colorado, Wyoming and Nevada to drop more than 1.5 million gallons of fire retardant.

“The most important thing for all of us is to become one cohesive team,” said Lt. Col. Jeremy Burton, pilot, 153rd Airlift Wing, Wyoming Air National Guard. “We just have to have a coordinated fight for all of us to be successful.”

California National Guard aviators, with assistance from other National Guard assets from other states, dropped millions of gallons of water during the 2020 wildfire season.

Cal Guard has also taken the fight into the ground as its Task Force Rattlesnake, with more than 200 well-trained firefighters, were in the trenches securing scorched areas. More than 500 infantry, artillery and/or armor-trained troops traded their normal skills to don firefighting gear and serve on fire battlegrounds to “mop up” fires, preventing them from future flare ups.

Hundreds of others served other important roles, such as fuelers, drivers, etc.

California secretary of Natural Resources, Wade Crowfoot, credited Cal Guard, CAL FIRE and their partners in the toughest fire season to date.

“We’re all proud of the men and women in our state who protect us from wildfires each season,” he said. “We know there are people who run into the wildfire to protect us while we’re running away.”

“As you know, fire has no boundaries,” said Kim Christensen, deputy assistant director of operations for USDA Forest Service. “We train together, we fight fires together. The fire starts on one agency and spreads to another. On a fire at any given time, you’re going to see multiple agencies working and coming together to manage that fire."

It was just as busy federally containing California wildfires, noted Paul Wade, forest service public information officer in Napa County. Organizations such as the National Interagency Fire Center, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Army and federal forces from Mexico and Canada teamed up to contain fires that crept into federal territory.

“Tons of interagency teams from all over the country,” Wade explained. “Small teams mainly managing them, but the top ones had boots on the fire lines.”

Jump back to May, when Porter boldly predicted what actually came true. Parts of the Sierra National Forest abruptly ignited in Fresno County, trapping hundreds of campers and hikers during the Creek Fire. Cal Guard aviators rushed in to rescue more than 300 shortly after the fire started Sept. 4, 2020.

The Creek Fire was contained more than a month later, ravaging more than 377,000 acres, California’s fourth largest all-time.

“It’s so important that we do this as a partnership,” Porter announced. “It’s going to take not just everyone here (pointing to agency directors) but all Californians.”

“When you see all these agencies here like the Army (guard), fire and forest service, it tells you we can all work together against a common enemy,” said Celso Abulai, contractor for McClellan Jet Services, one of the civilian agencies assisting MAFFS at the Sacramento, California air facility. “There’s no better team to fight a wildfire than the one you got here in California. This is really a team, a great team.”

A crew member aboard a UH-60 Black Hawk stares out his window to scan a wildfire during California's worst fire season in history.

The state of California proudly thanks firefighting assets from the following states and nations that assisted us during our worst fire season in history.

It took a massive effort from the California National Guard and a host of local, state and federal agencies to combine firefighting skills this year to contain more than 9,000 wildfires -- five of which were the state's largest ever.