Last month, the massive Carr Fire ripped through parts of the city of Redding, destroying more than 1,000 homes in the process. It’s still burning in some remote areas, but all evacuation orders for nearby communities have been lifted.
Now, firefighters from the Redding Fire Department have been deployed to a different wildfire: the Mendocino Complex. It’s about a three hour drive southwest of Redding.
“Basically the engines that we’re with [are] on a task force to lay hose on a dozer line to assist with firing operations,” said Kody Hansen, one of the Redding firefighters assigned to the Mendocino Complex.
In non-firefighter lingo, that means spraying water on a line that a bulldozer has cleared of vegetation, which is fuel for the fire.
Hansen and his crew have been assigned to the Mendocino Complex for days now. He says he likes helping out other communities, but fighting the Carr Fire earlier this summer as it burned into Redding was much more personal for his team.