North Texas Firefighters Sacrifice Thanksgiving At Home To Aid In Deadly California Wildfires
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - More than 200 Texas firefighters, including some from the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, have answered the call to assist in the deadly California wildfires. Those crews started heading to California on Monday.
The Dallas Wildland Strike, along with crews from Frisco, Flower Mound, Lewisville and Fort Worth, are committed to help battle those wildfires to save lives and homes.
For the second time within two months, Scott Pacot and a team of Dallas firefighters are headed to help California. The worst wildfires in decades have overwhelmed the state's 8,000-strong firefighting network.
The death toll for the recent wildfires in Northern and Southern California jumped to 42 as of Monday evening.
"We will have specific assignments. We won't know until we get there exactly what we're going to do. It could be structure protection... evacuations," said Pacot.
Dallas Fire-Rescue committed 20 firefighters to Southern California, and they will work there for at least two weeks. Pacot and others are also sacrificing Thanksgiving at home to assist.
"It's how committed our guys are, no problem filling this team, their families sacrificed this as well. That's the business we are in, and all the families of our firefighters understand that," said Justin Hood with Dallas Fire-Rescue Special Operations.
The team is said to have enough equipment to accommodate any assignment on the fire line or fire assistance for the Los Angeles Fire Department.