PHOENIX – It’s been all hands on deck battling the southern California wildfires.

The Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management has been called to help and their task force members are speaking on the tragedy they have seen just one state over.

Arizona task forces give ‘everything we had’

Why you should care:

As you can imagine, this is an extremely tough assignment. 

Long days and a lot of smoke. 

Battalion Chief Rich Jones spoke about some of the hardest parts of the job. 

What they’re saying:

“So current situation is we’re on day 19,” he said. “We were a part of the initial attack group that handled the Eaton Fire. We were there for 12 days giving the folks of Altadena everything we had.”

Jones was there from the beginning and he’s leading one of the eight Arizona task forces sent to California.

Jones says the most difficult part wasn’t the manual labor.

“There’s thousands of folks that lost everything and so emotionally, it’s hard to detach and stay focused on your job and continue to produce the production and quality you need with that much emotion. That was definitely the hardest part. Our heartstrings were pulled left and right out here,” he said.

By the numbers:

He is one of 150 Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management personnel supporting California. 

Most crews are staged to pick up any initial starts. 

One task force is currently assigned to the Palisades Fire and the eighth task force was sent early this morning.

“The exposure that we get battling (fires) all across the Pacific Northwest and all over the world is beneficial to our citizens of Arizona,” said Jones. We may not deal with the complexity of the wildland urban interface here, but coming here and grabbing that exposure helps us to be more alert and more prepared for what we have at home.”

What’s next:

Home is where his task force is headed early next week after an exhausting, yet rewarding 21 days.

“I’m looking forward to getting home. It’s been a long 21 days and I miss my family. You know, these are precious scraps of time that we trade away from our family for the wildland community to be here because there’s not a lot of us, but we do rally and come together when it’s needed the most,” he said. 

Jones says his task force will have a mandatory two days of rest after their 21st day and it’s possible they could pull another 21-day shift in California, if needed.