“Usually you get that overnight recovery and things slow down, but last night we didn’t get that,” Mr. Nuñez said.
Decreased staffing during what was expected to be the off-season has made containing the fire more challenging.
During peak fire season, Mr. Nuñez’s unit has 17 fully staffed fire engines, he said. But when the official fire season ended on Jan. 3, that number was reduced to two. More than 100 seasonal firefighters were laid off for a period of three months.
“The funding’s only available for a certain period of time, and we can’t run the seasonal program longer,” Mr. Nuñez said.
But with the extended drought, that funding calendar no longer matches up with the reality of fire season on the ground.
“Some of the units that close for fire season used to end up with snow for an extended period of time, and that’s not happening anymore,” Mr. Nuñez said.
With limited resources, Mr. Nuñez’s unit has sought additional personnel and equipment from other fire agencies as part of a resource sharing plan called “mutual aid.”
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/22/us/colorado-fire-big-sur-california.html
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