Ryan Rushing, a division chief with the Camp Pendleton Fire Department, speaks about the fire at Range 409A on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, October 23, 2019. (U.S. Marine Corps video by Cpl. Stephen Beard)
Transcript
Yeah, my name’s Ryan Rushing, I’m a division chief here at Camp Pendleton Fire Department.
[Interviewer] Can you spell that?
Yeah, first name Ryan, R-Y-A-N last name Rushing R-U-S-H-I-N-G.
[Interviewer] Can you tell me about a little bit about what’s going on?
Yeah, so yesterday afternoon we had a fire that started in the Zulu Impact due to some local training out here. We attempted to hold that fire on the west side of Roblar Road, we were unsuccessful due to the fire behavior and the weather. The fire spotted Roblar Road and consumed approximately 140 acres on the east side of Roblar Road. And that’s currently where we sit. Yeah, so we’ve received mutual aid support from the Cleveland, US Forest Service Cleveland, as well as Cal Fire Monte Vista unit. There’s currently no threat to any structures, the fire is burning mostly in a wildland area within the base boundaries. So currently no threat for any structures. Yesterday it did pose a threat to potentially leave the boundaries of Camp Pendleton. At this point we don’t see that threat still remaining based on the efforts of the crews last night. Yeah, so the reason we have such a strong presence here today to include Air Tac resources from the state as well as the US Forest Service is because of the predicted weather pattern. We’re setting up for a Santa Ana wind event coming, starting later this evening, possibly tomorrow. So due to the low RH’s, high temperatures, and possibly the wind event there is always a threat for the fire until it’s 100% lined and been mopped up to potentially flare back up and start again. So currently right now the fire size is, we’ve only mapped, we had a night flying Air Tac in here last night, who used IR capabilities to map the fire. He’s putting it at 139 acres all on the, sorry, east side of Roblar. So we haven’t mapped anything that’s within the impact just due to the, you can’t put ground folks in there cause it is impact. So we have 139, 140 acres roughly east side of Roblar currently and we’re putting it at 30% contained.
[Interviewer] And can you—
Currently, so last night we had over 100 personnel from both Cal Fire Monte Vista, the US Forest Service, and Camp Pendleton resources. Today you’re looking at about 70 to 100 personnel who are gonna be staffing the fire currently for the day shift.