SANTA MONICA, Calif. — After several days battling Southern California's deadly Palisades Fire that has also left thousands without homes, Unified Fire Authority crews from Utah were able to enjoy a hard-earned day off Tuesday.
"We're doing really well," said Public Information Officer Kelly Bird from Santa Monica.
UFA crews have mostly been doing structure protection work, setting up hose lines, and waiting for the fire to come to them as it approached their direction.
The high winds that helped the fires explode originally have calmed, allowing tankers to make aerial drops and assist in putting out the flames.
"Which was great because we were protecting a neighborhood up on the Encino side of the mountains up in the foothills up there," Bird explained.
The UFA crews moved into Malibu on Monday.
"We were doing some mop-up work, going through looking for hot spots, anything that was smoldering, smoking and then just kind of doing patrol through the night ensuring that as the wind picked up through the night, it didn't pick anything up and re-ignite it," said Bid.
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"About half of the members of our deployment have never even been on a deployment like this," Bird shared.
Utah firefighters will learn critical skills that will benefit their departments when crews return home.
"There is the potential for something like this to happen [in Utah] and if it ever does we are able to come back with a lot of skills," said Bird.
It's been a moment in time that Bird and the Utah will never forget.
"I've never felt more appreciated in my life, it's very awesome," he said. "The local citizens have, everywhere we go, thank yous and high fives and we appreciate what you're doing for us, and just a few minutes ago, a car pulled in and dropped off a bunch of food."
A local California resident raised $12,000 to bring in catered meals, and Bird said that while crews were being shuttled around from one firehouse to another, there was one night they were all put up in a Marriott hotel downtown.
"We did get one night with the swankiness," he laughed, "but it was short-lived!"
Utah firefighters are now camping out, literally, before getting back to work Wednesday while expecting their deployment to last another nine days with the threat of raging winds ramping up again.
When asked if there was one lesson he learned above any other through this, Bird offered up this request.
"Let's not wait for these big events to bring us together," he said. "Let's do what we can to help out our neighbors out before something bad happens."
