Holy Smoke Jumpers: Rare Team Brought in to Battle Rancho Santa Margarita Blaze

RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, CA — The Cleveland National Forest Service brought in the big guns last night to battle what they've dubbed the Holy Fire in the Santa Ana mountains.

Yesterday, Aug. 31, the fire reached 155 acres and is now 20-percent contained according to reports. That is in thanks to the U.S. Forest Service calling on their smoke jumpers.

"There has never been a need or an incident where we could call the smoke jumpers in to help us out," Olivia Walker, Public Affairs Officer for Cleveland National Forest said. "This marks the last of the California forests that the smoke jumpers have been to. A landmark event for Cleveland National Forest."

Thirteen smoke jumpers arrived on the scene of the fire yesterday late in the day, eight from Porterville and five from Redding.

"They came from quite a ways to get here," Walker said. The smoke jumpers arrived in a Sherpa transport, rerouted to San Bernardino and rerouted to the forest and jumped in at approximately 5:45 p.m.

"Smoke jumpers go down with hand tools and start cutting the line right away," Walker said. "They bring everything with them, including safety gear and are ready to go to work. As soon as they land, they start."

The quick moving Holy Fire— with its limited access and rugged terrain —was the perfect opportunity to call for the smoke jumper team.

"We needed someone to secure a line around the fire in rough terrain," she said. Results of a quick jump in containment can be attributed to the smoke jumpers fast work on the creating the fire line in that tough to reach location.

"Things have definitely slowed down today," Walker said. "They were able to assist significantly in us getting a good containment line going. Without them we wouldn't have this level of containment today."

These specialized firefighters are trained to parachute into hard-to-reach areas of a blaze, in the Cleveland National Forest, said Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Larry Kurtz.

Having smoke jumpers on a fire is "pretty rare in Southern California," OCFA Capt. Larry Kurtz said.

The smoke jumpers "parachute in, do their job and the next job they have is to find their way out of the forest,'' Kurtz said.

Today, firefighters will focus on containing the blaze, Kurtz said.

"It's going to be warm again today, but there's no wind, which is very important. It certainly helps keep the perimeter static,'' Kurtz said.

Four firefighters suffered minor injuries yesterday battling the blaze,which broke out for unknown reasons about 4 a.m. Wednesday in the general area of Holy Jim Canyon, several miles east of Rancho Santa Margarita, Kurtz said.

Some residents of Holy Jim Canyon voluntarily evacuated, but a mandatory evacuation was not ordered, Kurtz said.

Seven air tankers, including a DC-10 and 11 helicopters were deployed in the firefighting effort, Kurtz said.

Read more latest updates on the Holy Fire from Patch News Here.

The cause of this fire remains under investigation.

Cleveland National Forest Images by permission.