Sacramento Firefighters Deployed To Help Battle Rocky Fire

The Sacramento City Fire Department has deployed three strike teams totaling 12 people to help CalFire battle the Rocky Fire.

Chris Harvey is with the Sacramento City Fire Department. He says a total of 21 department firefighters have been deployed to various fire scenes throughout the region, including the Rocky Fire. But he says those deployments will not compromise department staffing.

"It affects are staffing here in Sacramento," says Harvey, "only to the extent that additional personnel here are required to come in and fill those vacancies. We're lucky to have a large enough department, with over 500 personnel, that we are able to absorb those vacancies."

Harvey says a lot of those firefighters have worked extensive overtime hours in the last couple of weeks to fill vacant slots.

He says every firefighter in the department is cross-trained for both structure and wild land firefighting.

The City of Roseville Fire Department has also deployed two strike teams totaling eight people; one on the "Rocky Fire," the other on the "Humboldt Fire."