A look into how fire crews help other counties outside of their area

Source: CBS News

EL DORADO COUNTY - Hot and windy conditions have resulted in multiple structure fires over the last few days, causing different fire agencies to disperse their crews to areas all over.

How do fire crews handle being dispersed to larger fires like the Jackson Fire while keeping their own backyard safe?

"No matter what color it is, what agency it's coming from, the closest resource is dispatched to that," Brad Stewart, Fire Chief of the Eldorado National Forest, said.

Stewart said the agencies within the county are dispatched out of the same location.

On Sunday, there were two vegetation fires and one house fire in El Dorado County.

"When we have multiple incidents breaking like they did yesterday, we have automatic aid agreement so it's nearest resources dispatched to those fires," Jason Snyder, Fire Captain for the El Dorado Fire Protection District, said Monday.

Snyder said they were able to put out the Murphy and Quartz Fire quickly on Sunday because of the immediate help from surrounding agencies.

"The Jackson incident down the hill yesterday drew down quite a few of our cal fire resources and so we were left with mostly local agencies," Snyder said.

Cal Fire also steps in to help whenever they can, as they sometimes have more resources available than some of the smaller agencies.

"If my neighbor needs something, I'm going to send it because I know at some point, I'm going to need the help in the near future," Issac Sanchez, Deputy Chief of Communications for Cal Fire, said.

A reminder they said to not burn when you're not supposed to, and try to avoid things like mowing your lawn on a hot, windy day.

"That's what happened with the Quartz Fire yesterday, it's suspected that it was a mower blade that struck a rock and that was a 16-acre fire that resulted from that," Snyder said.