El Cerrito Firefighters Helping Fight Yosemite Fire

Some El Cerrito firefighters are a long ways from home, helping to fight the biggest fire so far this year in California.

A total of nine employees from the El Cerrito Fire Department are now at the Rim Fire in the Yosemite Park area.

The local crew includes Battalion Chief David Gibson, who is overseeing one of the strike teams there.

That team includes four El Cerrito firefighters from truck 372. The squad also has firefighters from the Rodeo Hercules, San Ramon Valley, Contra Costa and Moraga-Orinda fire departments.

Four firefighters from El Cerrito OS unit 300 are with another strike team battling the Rim Fire, which has scorched 315 square miles and was 32 percent contained as of midday Friday.

The first wave of El Cerrito firefighters traveled to Yosemite a week and a half ago. They were replaced by another shift of El Cerrito firefighters late this week.

The nine fire personnel are more than a fourth of El Cerrito's 34-person fire department.

However, Fire Chief Lance Maples said the city's fire stations remain fully staffed because the firefighters who are in town are working extra shifts.

"It's one heck of a commitment by the entire department," said Maples.

The chief said the El Cerrito firefighters described the Yosemite blaze as a "very intense fire" that is "tough to fight."

Fire officials expect to have the Rim Fire fully contained by about Sept. 10. Until they do, El Cerrito firefighters will be there.