The historic Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena, California, is usually the home of UCLA’s football team. Now, as the Eaton fire continues to rage over more than 14,000 acres, the arena is home to more than 3,000 firefighters as they rest between shifts battling to get the blazes under control.
The Free Press’s Austyn Jeffs visited the massive operation this weekend. He found disaster-relief experts banding together to house, feed, and take care of the firefighters. Mobile trailers have been driven hundreds of miles from northern California and now sleep 42 firefighters each. Other firefighters prefer to sleep in tents. Firefighters can get their laundry done, have fajita dinners, and even hang out with an emotional support dog at the base camp. Despite the hard road ahead, and the devastation that has already been wrought, the firefighters Austyn met were staying positive thanks to the community support.
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