A pair of Long Beach firefighting teams deployed last night and this afternoon to two separate wind-fueled fires in the cities of Santa Clarita and Ventura which combined have burned through thousands of acres and destroyed over a hundred structures.
The Long Beach Fire Department posted on social media this afternoon that yesterday at about 10:30PM a strike team comprising five fire engines deployed to the Thomas Fire in Ventura County to provide structure support.
“The Thomas fire has grown to over 31,000 acres and has reached the city of Ventura. This is a wind driven event and weather models call for sustained winds through Thursday,” the post read.
In another post this afternoon, LBFD officials confirmed that another strike team was deployed to the Rye Fire in Santa Clarita. The team consisted of three LBFD fire engines and two engines from the cities of Downey and Vernon led by a battalion chief from Long Beach.
“The fire has grown to 1,000 acres as of 1:45 PM this afternoon, with zero percent containment shutting down both directions of the 5 freeway in the area,” the post read.
This is not the first time this year that LBFD has deployed its strike teams to assist with fires outside of the city. In October, firefighters were sent to wine country to provide support during the Napa Valley fires, as well as to the Anaheim Hills to help fight fires there.