COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — More Colorado firefighters are heading to help with the fires in the Los Angeles area. As many as 40 engines with four person crews could be in California by midday Saturday.
One of those crews is from Colorado Springs Fire Department. The got the call to go Friday morning and hit the road just after noon.
“I communicated with everybody that I'm going out with and said, Hey, I want to try and be out of here within two hours. So we'll do our best to get out of here as soon as we can,” said Lieutenant Aaron Holslag with Colorado Springs Fire Department
This crew goes with added motivation. Three of the four grew up in Southern California and have family and friends still there.
“So, seeing a lot of that destruction is a little, it's personal,” said Firefighter Guillerrmo Zavala.
Firefighter Ryan Morris said, “I always wanted to help out. Never been able to go out, back to where I'm from and help out. So looking forward to hopefully helping a little bit.”
All four on the CSFD team are firefighters with a lot of wildland experience. They have also been media watching reports out of Los Angeles. The images prompt thoughts of extra focus on the task ahead.
“What I am seeing, I don't think I've been to an incident like this before, so this is going to be new for me,” said Holslag.
As of Friday morning, more than 150,000 people were under evacuation orders in the L.A. area and at least 10 people had died.
Stratmoor Hills Fire Protection District also sent assistance to California this week.
WATCH: Colorado firefighters helping battle California fires
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