On Tuesday, Jan. 6, high wind warnings chimed on the phones of Southern California residents, preparing them for the infamous Santa Ana winds. The wind was not only an invisible force but a friend to a small spark that grew across Southern California, affecting various areas across different cities.
The next day, Jan. 7, calls about the Eaton Fire in Altadena began trickling in around 6:30 p.m. as the fire began. Due to the high winds, multiple cities caught fire as flames spread, destroying homes, businesses, cars and almost everything in their path. The most prominent fires were the Palisades and Eaton fires, which together devastated about 40,000 acres.
Cole Padilla, firefighter for the Los Angeles County Fire Department, explained the scene in Altadena as he worked on the Eaton Fire.
“Just everywhere you look, there’s just pretty much houses and buildings, all different kinds of buildings, whether it’s houses or businesses, that just kept catching on fire,” Padilla said.
Though the wind was discouraging to many Angelenos evacuating and hoping for the safety of their loved ones and homes, firefighters stepped into battle the flames.
“The way the strike team works is we have the five engines, and then a battalion chief with us. That is who we report to and who gives us all the assignments for when we get there,” Padilla said. “And so we all kind of caravaned over, and we were taking the freeway down all the way to Altadena and just got put to work right away because it was… crazy.”
After about three weeks of ongoing fires, California residents prepared for heavy rains moving in over the weekend into the last week of January. The rain helped relieve the fires but was not nearly enough to end fire season.
The fires were at their strongest in the first week when the winds were more intense. While the fires were 80–90% contained, the flames still devastated neighborhoods and communities.
“I was there for like the first, honestly, 36 hours, and it was when it was the most—I want to say crazy—because of all the winds. They were up to like 80 miles an hour, sometimes even more. So when we were trying to protect one house in the neighborhood, all the embers would blow over and catch like two houses ahead of us,” Padilla said.
Padilla explained the hard work he and his team put in during the first few days of battling the fires and the sadness that comes with the job.
“We were able to save some houses, but obviously not all of them because there were so many that burned down. It is very, very sad. Yeah, it sucked,” Padilla said. Despite that sadness, he added, “It felt good knowing that we were able to save at least one or two. But just the whole time, we were trying to drive from different neighborhoods to see which houses needed saving.”
Firefighters faced many obstacles due to how fast the fire spread, stretching their team thin across multiple areas.
“They would send, try and send a couple engines here, a couple engines there, and sometimes we were just even the only engine on the street, going from house to house, making sure that nothing was catching like in the backyards and everything,” Padilla said.
On top of the challenges, firefighters had to determine which houses were salvageable. If a home was more than 20% engulfed in flames, getting water to it was much harder.
“Anywhere more than that, especially with all the winds, it was pretty hard to get water on it and put it all out,” Padilla said. “Especially, I don’t know if you heard, but the hydrants started getting tapped out and everything, so we started losing water. We had to be really conservative with it.”
Despite the weather challenges and limited water supply, Padilla’s strike team worked tirelessly to contain the flames.
“I want to say that was probably the hardest [part]. I remember there was a couple times where we were just the only engine on the street going from house to house, moving furniture, like outside furniture, into the pools and away from the house, anything flammable that can catch the house that was next to it,” Padilla said.
Padilla mentions the sadness of the job that he’s dreamt of since childhood, and while it’s a ‘sad reality,’ he knows it’s what comes with the job.
“I know this is what I signed up for, and this is what I [wanted] to do, ever since I was a little kid. So it’s definitely hard,” Padilla said. “It’s sad, but at the same time, it’s just part of the job, and it’s a sad reality, but it is what I signed up for. So it was one of those things. ‘Oh, we did [the] best we could. And worked as hard as we could to save the houses that we did.'”
Though the fires devastated Los Angeles County—displacing residents, destroying homes and businesses, and claiming at least 28 lives, according to Cal Fire—Padilla said he would not choose another career.
“Just keep having faith in us that we can do our job. I know you ask any fireman, any firefighter about their job. I know they would all say they would do it again in a heartbeat to go help out and put out all the fires,” Padilla continued. “Personally, even if I didn’t get paid, I’d still volunteer to go and help out, because I love the job so much. I think it’s the best job in the world. Definitely has it’s things where it can be tough, like in situating times like this. But you know, we all signed up for it, we all know what we’re getting into and I know a lot of us wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
