Fatigued Firefighters Meet Great Appreciation from San Diego Residents

Cooling temperatures and ocean breezes are providing welcome relief to hot, tired California firefighters who have spent the past week fighting fires across San Diego County. San Diego residents have been expressing their thanks for the firefighters’ heroic efforts.

Atop a hill where the Pointsettia fire burned some homes, three trucks rolled in and firefighters got out to gather equipment left behind. Friday, Carlsbad residents gathered in some of the charred areas that had been restricted, turned to thank the men who fought back the flames, defending their homes. The firefighters humbly accepted the thanks before returning to the task at hand.

In the heat of the battles against the fires, some San Diego fire crews were putting in 72-hour shifts reported 10 News.

One firefighter’s selfie, sent to his wife, of his team getting a welcome break has gone viral. CBS 8 reported that firefighter Tim Bergon took the shot to assure his wife that he was safe. When asked about why there has been such an overwhelming response to the photo, the local business owner of the Plan 9 Alehouse, Monica Calles, told CBS 8, “I think they were just really grateful, I think the word everybody was thinking is, thank you, thank you, you can’t really say thank you enough.” Calles told the reporter that the photo was taken in the midst of the Cocos fire. Plan 9 Alehouse, like a number of other businesses in the area, offered free food to the firefighters during the blazes as a thank you.

Sheriff Bill Gore said, at a press conference, the fires are continuing to be investigated. Three individuals have been arrested so far in connection with setting fires in two areas of San Diego County.

Fox News reported, “The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has responded to more than 1,500 fires this year, compared with about 800 during an average year.”