SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — The fires burning in Los Angeles are fueled by the Santa Ana winds, and as the winds are forecasted to continue to blow through San Diego County, some San Diegans are on edge.
“It’s going to be a long recovery for Palisades and for Pasadena, Altadena area, and we’ve been through that in San Diego,” San Diego Fire-Rescue Battalion Chief Chris Babler said.
The Cedar Fire in 2003 was also fueled by the Santa Ana winds. It burned 280,000 acres and destroyed more than 2,000 homes from Alpine, and killed two people.
“It’s eerily similar to the 30 years I’ve been in the fire service and all the firefighters, we’re texting, we’re calling each other, we feel for the firefighters that are out there when you have embers flying at 50 mph at you, your eyes are just getting beat, your lungs are just, they are burning, the exposure to that smoke and just the stress of not being able to put people’s houses out or saving some houses and not saving others, it’s a very stressful feeling,” Babler said. “I want to help I’m signing up for overtime, whatever I can do, I mean there’s some firefighters that have already left in their private vehicles to go help, that’s just kind of the nature of the profession.”