Arizona firefighter shares his experience battling wildfires in Los Angeles

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Arizona firefighters like Rich Jones answered the call to make the trip to LA to help save lives and homes in California.

He spent the first weeks of the new year in Los Angeles fighting the fires there. As a battalion chief with the Department of Forestry and Fire Management, Jones was originally sent out to help with the Eaton fire near Altadena. Most recently, Jones has been helping with the Hughes fire near Castaic.

He describes these last few weeks as emotional, saying, “Our heart strings were pulled left and right out here.”

Jones has been there for more than two weeks. Between the three major fires, the Palisades, Eaton and Hughes fires, close to 50,000 acres have burned, and 28 people have died. Some areas look like a war zone.

“Emotionally, it’s hard to detach,” he said. “There were some folks that we did a lot of good work for and we were able to save everything they had, but then there’s thousands of folks that lost everything.”

Jones says it’s been a tough couple of weeks. He talked about the difference between fighting fires in Los Angeles and Arizona.

“The Eaton Fire brings a whole new level of complexity due to the Santa Ana wind events,” he said. “There’s a lot of people here and a lot of infrastructure and a lot of privately owned property.”

Jones says getting exposure to wildfires like these will help crews be better prepared for fighting fires here at home.

“I’m excited for the relationships that I’ve built with the many cooperators that have come out here,” he said. “I’m excited for what that collaboration is going to look like when we’re dealing with fires of our own back in Arizona.”

While he’s proud to serve in California, after a long couple of weeks, he is ready to come home.

“These are precious scraps of time that we trade away from our family for the wildlife community to be here,” he said. “I look forward to spending those precious scraps of time with my family.”

Jones has two days left on his assignment shift. He says they’re required to take two days off for rest, but they could get asked to work another 21-day shift.

About 150 Arizona fire personnel with DFFM are still in Los Angeles fighting the fires. There is no timeline for when all Arizona crews will be back home.

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