Fresno, Clovis Fire Departments offer support in Park Fire battle

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Shocking video and photos show the rapid spread of the Park Fire, including the timelapse of a "fire whirl" captured by a UC San Diego camera.

Firefighters from around the state were called on when the flames sparked on Wednesday crews from Clovis and Fresno soon deployed to help.

Clovis offered an engine with 3 firefighters on board and Fresno sent some of their own.

"Currently we have 5 of our people from Fresno Fire that are up there supporting The Park incident," said Shane Brown, Fresno Fire Fire Captain. "So we have a taskforce leader and a fire engine that is up there with four of our firefighters onboard."

Not all firefighters can be deployed out of the county, they have to undergo special training to help them transition seamlessly into the operations alongside other departments.

Many firefighters are constantly taking new courses so they can take on any role necessary at these large-scale operations, sometimes different from their daily jobs.

"The idea is I show up, I get briefed by whoever I'm reporting to and kind of brought into the incident and the idea is I hit the ground running within the first operational period," said Brown. "Then I'm able to assimilate into the incident and actually provide, you know some benefit to the incident."

The deployments can take firefighters from their families and departments for 20 to 25 days for larger fires.

Meanwhile, everyday citizens are also looking for ways to help all too aware of how quickly a fire can take everything away.

American Red Cross of Central California has not sent volunteers to the Park Fire at this time due to our high risk of fires locally, but said that could change as early as this weekend.

You can become a trained volunteer if you want to help with emergencies like this one.

"You could be working in a shelter for instance, you can also help with recovery efforts where they pass out different cleaning supplies things like that after disaster, you could do damage assessments," said Eddie Zamora, Red Cross Volunteer.

For those unable to volunteer the Red Cross suggests making monetary donations to help with their efforts.

As large and concerning as the Park Fire is local departments are strategic in how many people they send to ensure local response isn't impacted.

Both departments have crews deployed at other fires around the state. Clovis has sent a dozen total and Fresno has more than 20 deployed now.

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