Yuma Fire Department and Rural Metro deploy engines to aid in battling Pacific Palisades fire

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - The Yuma Fire Department and Rural Metro deployed resources to Southern California.

YFD received a single resource request Wednesday from California authorities, and says it's working as a protection agency against the wildfires.

Captain David Padilla, the Public Information Officer for YFD, said, "So, we are in California supporting their helicopters and their airplanes that are flying overhead and dropping water and were working as a protection agency in case they have some type of incident with aviation fuel or something happens with an air craft as part of the fire response."

YFD says they expect resources and firefighters should be deployed for two weeks, but depending on the severity, it could be much longer.

"We could potentially be deployed for months if the incident extends that long, but those particular people who are there will only be there for two weeks at a time," Padilla remarked.

YFD gave a demonstration of a feature on the fire engine: "So this is one of the features that the yuma fire department specks to have foam capabilities so that were able to pump foam through any one of our hose lines and be able to support any firefighting operations like the ones in California."

While some local firefighters help in California, YFD says this should not affect the way they handle emergency calls in Yuma: "Our community always comes first, and we only respond to those emergencies if we have the people, the capacities, the man power that we can free up for people to go while not affecting our home operation, and so no operations will be affected here locally thankfully."

Rural Metro also deployed brush eight with captain Harold Neuhaus and firefighter Daniel O'Connor to help with the wildfires.

Padilla says although they are five hours away from the fires, YFD wants to help in anyway they can.