Five Cariboo firefighters were part of the 23-person team who travelled to California to help battle devastating wildfires in the state recently.

On January 14, 22 seasoned firefighters from across the province and their BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) agency representative, crossed the border on their drive down to California. 

Rob Bardossy, a senior wildfire officer in aviation at the Cariboo Fire Centre, was the agency representative, helping liaison with the host agency and oversee the crew. Bardossy went down with the 22 ground firefighters, all experienced crew supervisors from fire centres across the province.

Five of the 23-person team heading south were from the Cariboo Fire Centre, including Bardossy, and the group went as a unit crew to help support the beleaguered California ground crews dealing with the devastating fires and intense fire conditions.

After some initial orientation and training in Bakersfield, a California city located north and inland of Los Angeles.

The crew was then deployed to the Eaton Fire for three days, a fire in a mountainous area north of Pasadena encompassing over 14,000 acres. 

The Little Tonga Hot Shot crew, which had worked a more than 40-hour shift on the Eaton Fire, were due for some days of rest, and the BCWS crew was able to take over their base and give them a much-needed break.

The crew was on standby there to respond to new starts in the Angeles National Forest. 

"We were just one of many spokes in the larger wheel," said Bardossy, noting there were a massive number of resources in the area ready to respond.

While the crews weren't in any of the heavily impacted urban areas, as they were there to aid in ongoing wildfire efforts, Bardossy did get a glimpse of some of the destruction caused by the Eaton Fire on one day as he drove to a meeting.

"It's just sad," he said of the level of destruction.

"Obviously a very fast-moving fire," he said, describing trees blown over or sheered off a metre to 10 metres up.

"Just snapped right off," he said. "Just sad to see that level of devastation."

With abnormally strong Santa Ana winds, and dry fuel conditions normally seen in July or August, Bardossy said in many cases when many of the California fires started, there wasn't a lot firefighters could do against wind gusts over 160 km per hour.

"You don't stand a chance in that type of wind," he said, with long-range spotting of the fires.

The group was also one of the first crews working to contain the Hughes Fire, north of Santa Clarita, which burned over 10,000 acres.

Bardossy described it as an "adrenaline rush" being a part of the initial response with a number of other agencies.

The crew was part of the response, which included a massive number of air support.

"As an aviation guy, it was pretty awe-inspiring to see how much aircraft they had," he said. 

"It was just an air show," he said, noting for some time it was far too risky to send in ground crews, due to the volatile conditions.

"The winds were howling," said Bardossy, noting while they had decreased from the extreme gusts of 160 km per hour, they were still up to 60 km per hour.

"Still very aggressive fire behaviour," he said. An anchor point, which provided a safe location to work from and prevent being entrapped by the fire, needed to be established before the crew could go in.

Once this happened, the crew went in and began building guard, removing fuel with chainsaws and digging guard using handtools.

"We had our window of opportunity and yeah, we got on the line and did what we do," he said.

While they all understood, based on the conditions and many briefings, to expect extreme fire behaviour, it was another thing to see it in person.

"You don't really get an appreciation of it until you're there watching it, and then it's like 'wow this is really an aggressive fire,'" he said.

The crew built some fireline to help contain the fire, working to tie into a hand guard and helping prevent spotting over a road.

"The crew did exceptionally well," he said.

"We held our line and contributed to the fire being contained at the end of the day, so that always a nice feeling, knowing what we did was successful and appreciated and it worked."

All this while encountering some novel challenges including poison oak and cacti.

"There's no real forest, so it's a very flashy, explosive fire," explained Bardossy, noting by the third day, things had calmed down significantly. The fuels in California burn hot and fast, but also don't hold the residual heat, and the fires die down after a few days.

This is different from the forest fuels found in large parts of B.C., which can burn for much longer. 

Even with the difficult fire conditions and devastation in the area, the trip to California was a positive experience for the group, said Bardossy, and the crew returned with learning they can now bring to the coming fire season.

"There's a real lack of water down there," he said. This helped show the crews what can be accomplished even before water arrives, using saws, digging line and cutting guard.

"There's always something that can be done while waiting," he said, noting while BCWS crews do some of this, they may not do it quite to the extent or with as much emphasis, with the expectation of water to come. In California, they don't always know water will arrive.

With the crew being made up of crew supervisors from across the province, the lessons they learned will now be able to be shared across the entire province.

"That's kind of a win for the 2025 fire season," he said, with another bonus being the camaraderie which was built over the trip.

"They really built a rapport as a crew which was really cool to see," said Bardossy.

Other memorable experiences on the trip included getting to camp inside the Rose Bowl stadium.

"A pretty neat experience to be hanging out at the Rose Bowl if you're a sports person," he said, of the camp, which he said likely housed between three and five thousand people.

The reception of the crews was also very positive, with people spotting their vehicles turning around and rolling down windows to give thanks.

"We were treated like royalty top to bottom," he said, and people who needed it were getting support. 

"Regardless of everything that's going on down there and how bad everything looked, there was shelters set up everywhere, there were aid organizations everywhere," he said, noting the kindness he saw helped renew his faith in humanity.

"Even though it's a bad situation, people were really coming together to help each other out," he said.

The crews made it back across the border to Canada Feb. 2.