Firefighters set up camp in Kernville to fight Trout and Long fires

• In response to two major fires raging in the Sequoia National Forest, firefighters have gathered at Camp Nine in Kernville to set up an operations control center.
• The Trout Fire started on July 13 and the Long Fire on July 15. Both were sparked by lightning strikes.
• On July 23, approximately 1,000 firefighters were involved in fighting the fire, divided between two command centers – one in Kernville and one in Troy Meadow.

TRANSCRIPT OF THE MISSION:

For hundreds of firefighters, this command center at Camp 9 in Kernville is currently home –

“The facilities here offer everything a firefighter needs for a deployment of up to fourteen days.”

Joe Rosa is the spokesperson for the California Interagency Incident Management Team 14, which is working to contain the Trout and Long fires.

“We have a kitchen, the camp also includes shower units and washing facilities.”

The firefighters have access to mobile sleeping trailers that are equipped with air conditioning and electrical outlets.

There are forty berths per trailer.

Firefighters also have the opportunity to camp on site.

As of Tuesday, the two fires had burned a total of about 28,000 acres of land.

In total, around 1,000 personnel are deployed, most of them distributed between this command post and another in Troy Meadow.

The firefighters’ day began with a meeting.

“This map changes every morning,” Rosa said, pointing to a large map showing the perimeter of each fire.

“Where you see it’s black, you’re confident, 100 percent confident, that it’s not going to go downhill here.”

According to Rosa, progress can be made in firefighting without increasing the level of containment.

“They are constantly working and making progress, it’s just that they don’t always show any signs of containment.”

The Trout and Long fires have presented challenges for emergency responders.

“Helicopter support is not limited to water drop missions. They also bring their own crews here to drop the water because there is no road access.”

Rosa says some of the crew members camp in these hard-to-reach areas for two to three days.

“We bring them lunch and breakfast and drop them off at a certain point so they have something to eat while they do the arduous task of containing the fire.”

A thunderstorm on Monday caused further complications.

“We had heavy rain here yesterday, a road was washed away and we had emergency crews on both sides of the road working today to recover the remains and reassemble them.”

Thunderstorms are forecast again for Tuesday.

“Frequent cloud-to-ground lightning that could spark new fires, and then heavy rain similar to what we saw yesterday,” said Brooke Taber, a National Weather Service meteorologist who is helping with firefighting efforts.

According to Taber, while rain can help put out the fire, it can also cause other problems.

“There are many areas that have been burned, that is, burn scars, and these are very vulnerable to flooding, so you can have mudslides or flash floods.”

The helipad in Kernville serves as a base for firefighting helicopters that transport their crews and drop water and fire retardant.

Attention is not only being paid to the surrounding area, the emergency services are also working to protect surrounding buildings.

“There are historic cabins there, and these cabins have been wrapped. They take a material, almost like aluminum foil, and wrap the structure with it and tape it down, and it looks like a big silver house,” Rosa said.

The multi-agency response is a massive logistical operation, but Rosa says California leads the nation in such operations to fight large wildfires.

“The crews are working hard. Of course, keeping the accident as small as possible is our top priority, but we also have to consider public safety in Kennedy Meadows, the people who travel on our roads and the safety of the firefighters.”

Rosa tells me that they expect National Guard firefighters to arrive at the camp soon.

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