Photo By Capt. Johnny Chau | March Field Fire Emergency Services from March Air Reserve Base stationed in Moreno...... read more read more
Irvine, CA - “The Southland continues to burn tonight…” The reporter’s somber voice echoes into the home I share with my husband in Orange County, California. I watch news footage of my old neighborhood swallowed whole by the beastlike fire dubbed, like so many others, The Palisades Fire. The landmark home of the late actor and humanitarian, Will Rogers, burned to ash along with the old movie and television sets in the area. Powerless, I text U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Wendy Day of the 452d Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs office, to which I am a Public Affairs Officer. I ask if March Field Fire and Emergency Services will be dispatched to help. After a quick conversation via text message I call Chief Kile Stewart, Chief of March of March Field and Fire Emergency Services.
Stewart’s calm demeanor belies an experienced firefighter, engineer, and what other else jobs firefighters are tasked upon in the moment, usually someone else’s worst moment. He informs me that not only has our team been deployed to Los Angeles County, they’d been there for two days already.
After some quick coordination with U.S. Air Force Maj. Perry Covington, Chief of Public Affairs, 452d AMW, March Air Reserve Base, our PA team is cleared to go support our firefighters in less than twenty-four hours. Along for the ride next to me is U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Joseph Pagan, from the 163d Attack Wing, a California Air National Guard unit based at March ARB. Pagan’s past work in the field has won Air Force-level awards; on the drive North, we discuss the balance between news and art in our chosen mediums. But our conversation fades as we begin to smell the ash that falls like bizarre snowflakes around the truck.
On-scene is Chief Michael Goodman, Chief March Field Fire and Emergency Services, who soon becomes a sherpa and translator, of sorts, to us as we embed with arch Fire Engine Nine team. Our engine consists of four people: firefighters and engineers. Each certified to fight fires in both urban and wildland fires, we learn later they volunteered to dive into LA County’s darkest days. Each bring the hope that their work will save others from experiencing the devastating loss already experienced by too many.
Our Engine Nine team is one of five engines that make up Strike Team 650A from Riverside County. Through the power of mutual aid agreements, March Fire, as we are dubbed, is one of more than dozens of fire organizations in 650A from Riverside County. Through these agreements citizens of Riverside County can sleep tight. Currently, 650A has deployed to multiple fires in LA County, and is headed by Battalion Chief Craig Sanborn from Cathedral City Fire Department, California.
A hush continues over Tech Sgt Pagan and I as we follow Engine Nine through the Altadena neighborhoods in support of fire suppression efforts of the Eaton Fire. It’s a bizarre snapshot of life in the city as we pass restaurants, historical Spanish revival architecture from the 1920s, carwashes and auto shops. It’s as if the ash were ice that had frozen a day-in-the-life of the residents of the neighborhood.
Less than a month ago this area, colloquially named “Christmas Tree Lane”, was celebrating the high holidays. Indeed, we find homes that still have holiday lights hanging from burnt out roofs, implying the families that lived there only had plans to take the decorations down, not evacuate to a shelter nearby. It hardly seems like the United States, let alone the affluent area of Altadena, I’d grown up nearby.
Engineer Ruben Anaya, Firefighter March Field Fire and Emergency Services, allows me to follow behind him as he and the team do tactical patrols through the rubble of various residences. I look down at my feet as I step over signed yearbook photos, half burnt pages of someone’s music workbook, and remnants of a family’s life. Anaya warns of “Widow Makers,” a term for trees that have been weakened by fire structurally that will suddenly fall, so I remember to also keep looking up.
We pass a garage of burnt classic cars, and Capt. Brandon DuBois, of March Field and Fire Services, hisses in regret at the loss of beauty. The team finds various embers and rushes to put them out lest they gain purchase and become a second beast to fight. It seems to me the men from Engine Nine are like the mortal warriors from the old tales, fighting a chimera monster. An ember flickering at the base of a small tree stump initially instills as much fear as a little mosquito but leave it to fester and a ravenous beast of fire swallows' acres of land; it’s fury indiscriminate of whether it be wildlands, forest or urban streets.
Engine Nine’s weapons are axes, firehoses, coordination with other teams but the true weapon they possess is the stubborn determination to win mastery over the beast. It’s something primal, internal, and unmatched by any force seen by Earth. It’s a deeper fire found within.
Where people of a nation rally together lie not their weaponry or tools, it’s the people themselves that become the force. It’s ultimately the reason the United States Air Force began the Reserve; the power of everyday people, when united in a common cause, can move heaven and earth. Today, they unite across uniforms to save, preserve, or keep the Eaton Fire at bay. I have no doubt that ultimately these warriors will not only keep the fire at bay but gain ground on it, ultimately subduing it. When they do, I will be thinking of Chief Michael “Mike” Goodman, Capt. Brandon DuBois, and the firefighters: Ruben Anaya, Dakota Christensen, and Jack Cools
U.S. Air Force Col Bryan Bailey, Commander, 452d AMW, March ARB, visits the team in the field and repeats Fred “Mr. Rogers” Rogers’ quote: “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”. The team, dirty and in the middle of the rubble, sigh in relief at Bailey’s words. They’ve been working twenty-four-hour shifts and yet are somehow hungry to do more. His words, a reminder that they are the helpers, and members of the community won’t ever be able to fully express their gratitude. But it’s there.
Engine Nine continues tactical patrol, driving through affected neighborhoods looking to ensure every ember is extinguished and I follow wishing the world can see what I see. Another instance of the dedicated people of the March ARB answering their community’s call, helping in quiet yet stubborn determination, to make life better. Not asking for thanks, reluctant for attention and walking together with partners from Cathedral City, Murrieta, Canyon Lake, and Idyllwild, each ready to answer the call.
| Date Taken: | 01.11.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 01.23.2025 13:35 |
| Story ID: | 489548 |
| Location: | CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 88 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, The Fire Within, by 2nd Lt. Callie McNary, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
March Air Reserve Base
Air Force Reserve Command
