NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – The New Mexico Strike Team leader spoke about fighting California wildfires After more than two weeks of fighting historic wildfires in California, New Mexico’s crews are back home. “It’s good to be back home,” said Nathan Miller, New Mexico strike team leader.
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Crews from five different New Mexico fire departments returned home after 18 days on the job battling some of the most destructive wildfires in California history. “The fires were a little bit, I’d say a little bit more devastating due to the intensity that fires had burned through,” said Miller.
Their days started around 5 a.m. at the incident command post in Zuma Beach or Malibu. Some days, the 19 New Mexico firefighters would work 24-hour shifts. “But at any point in time, we could be called back in the event that their fire decided to reignite or start having more of a threat to the communities again. We could be recalled at any moment’s notice. So even though we were on our down day, we wouldn’t be down technically on those days,” said Miller.
Their work consisted of clearing areas by scraping away brush from homes and mopping up fire lines. But crews also worked as a support system for neighbors as they returned to fire-burnt neighborhoods to see if their homes were still standing. “One resident mentioned, you know, when he was, the reason he was leaving is like, who are my kids going to play with? Because there’s no other kids left here on the block, everybody else’s houses, you know, are not standing anymore,” said Miller.
They say helping with these fires has been a learning experience they hope to use back here in New Mexico. “It’s always an honor to be able to go out there and help out wherever we are helping out,” said Miller.
The Palisades Fire is currently 94% contained.