LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Calif. (KCCI) – As multiple fires continue to spread in Southern California, leaving firefighters and first responders to help evacuate thousands of people, others living just outside the evacuation zone are keeping a close eye on what's happening.
Emilee Richardson is a native of Iowa and currently lives in Los Angeles. She lives just outside the evacuation zone and says she's following the news closely and making sure she gets any emergency alerts.
“It feels like you’re around a campfire,” Richardson said. “You can feel it in your lungs when you breathe, but also in your eyes.”
Richardson says that's why you can see people wearing masks that cover their mouths and sometimes extend past their noses. She says she can't see the flames from her house, but there is ash and the sky glows orange from the flames during the day.
“This is a different kind of weather than I have ever experienced. The smoke is wild. I went out for a while last night and it’s filling up my apartment,” Richardson said. “If the fire got to me it would be a really big event, but I still packed a bag.”
Firefighters from other parts of California and other states have arrived to help fight the flames.
“It's a dangerous situation. There are a lot of people around LA,” said Ryan Schlater, fire specialist with the Iowa DNR.
While the fire protection team was not called to California this time, the fire protection team was in California last summer, according to Schlater.
“When we were out there last summer, we were just east of this area fighting four different fires,” Schlater said. “The Santa Ana winds are really bad out there right now, and this is kind of a unique local wind.”
Schlater says the days in such situations are long and physically demanding. He also says extreme weather conditions make the task dangerous.
In addition to fighting the flames, Schlater said emergency services on site are also focusing on evacuations and saving lives.
“On Tuesday they evacuated 30,000 people. I grew up in Carroll, Iowa, and 10,000 people live there,” Schlater said. “So I'm thinking about evacuating three times as many people as I grew up in the city, and that's a big undertaking.”
Richardson says she is safe for now, but unfortunately she knows people whose homes burned down.
“People who have lived in LA all their lives say this is more intense than ever,” Richardson said.
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