Colorado Springs crew stands by, waits for call to help battle California wildfire

More than 1,300 miles west of Southern Colorado, a raging inferno known as the Boles Fire has burned more than 150 structures in the small Northern California town of Weed, just west of Mount Shasta.

In Colorado Springs, an engine built to combat wildfires and hot shot crews are on stand-by, ready to head to California to help.

“When we had our fires here we’ve had other states send apparatus and personnel to help us,” firefighter Jesse Weddle said. “It’s nice to be able to pay that back. It’s nice knowing that we’re trained to a level that the other states can utilize us.”

The experience local firefighters gained in both Waldo Canyon and Black Forest means incident commanders across the region often look to Southern Colorado for a helping hand.

“Not only do we have people who are able to fight fire,” Captain Tim De Leon said, “We have people that can manage strike team, whole divisions and we have people who can manager safety for structure protection.”

As of Tuesday night, a dozen fires burn across California.

“California is just entering they’re burn period,” De Leon said. “Unlike us where we have summer as our burn period, that state’s starting to experience Santa Ana winds and that state is taxed. In previous years, it was rare for us to get a call to go to California, not this year.”

If the Springs gets the call to assist on the front lines in Weed, four-person crews would be sent to Northern California for up to two weeks at a time.