Fire Chief Augustin: “Thankfully, We’re Getting More Reinforcements”

Pasadena Fire Chief Chad Augustin told Newsmax Thursday that while the first 36 hours of battling the blazes “were tough,” his firefighters remain committed despite their fatigue because “they love this community and they want to protect the homes and the land that we all work and live in.”

“Thankfully, we’re getting more reinforcements,” Augustin told Newsmax’s “Wake Up America.” “We requested 60 strike teams. We have both California Fire and a federal incident management team coming in to support, lots of additional resources coming in, so they can actually get on a regular work-rest cycle.”

“We were able to get aircraft up in the air and more reinforcements of firefighting personnel,” Augustin said. “I expect today that we will get even more aircraft, more firefighting personnel, and we’ll be able to start making a run on getting a containment line around this fire.”

The firefighting operation has faced significant challenges with water supplies.

“When you have dozens and dozens of firefighting engines all at the same time, pulling water from water systems and fire hydrants, there is a risk of decreasing water supplies,” Augustin explained. “You top that with a loss of power in some of our areas, and we did, for a short period of time in Pasadena, we did have limited and, in some cases, no water supply. Thankfully, it was very brief, and our crews, most of our fire engines, have at least 750 gallons of water on their fire engines, plus we have water tenders.”