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The South Pasadena Fire Department sent personnel and units, including Engine 81, to the Riverside County Fire on Thursday, and on Friday afternoon they were redeployed to the Saddleridge incident in the Sylmar area, according to South Pasadena Fire Chief Paul Riddle.
The fires are blowing strongly from Sylmar, according to Riddle, and embers have blown across the 210 and 5 freeways into North Hills.
“The good news,” said Riddle, just before 1:30 p.m. on Friday, “is this is expected to be a short wind event with winds turning on-shore later Friday.”
“South Pasadena participates in the Statewide Mutual Aid Agreement,” explained Riddle. “We send one engine with four firefighters throughout the state as needed. Yesterday they were deployed to Riverside County the redirected to L.A. We backfill immediately to cover South Pasadena. The total cost is reimbursed by the state.”
Winds are expected to die down Saturday, but, according to the National weather service, conditions are extremely dry in the region. Southern California Edison is warning customers that more than 173,000 homes and business could lose power as a result of the blazes.
Fires broke out across Southern California Thursday as both the temperatures and winds rose and continued into Friday.
The South Pasadena personnel assigned were to the Southland fires were: Captain Anthony Porraz, Engineer Scott McLellan, Firefighter Paramedic George Hoyos, Firefighter Paramedic Ryan Vrooman.
