East Pierce Firefighters Headed To Fight SoCal Wildfires [Update]

BONNEY LAKE, WA - East Pierce firefighters will not travel to California this weekend to help fight wildfires raging in the Los Angeles area. The department had received a request from the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC), but said Friday that request was canceled.

There are six wildfires burning between San Diego and north to Ventura.

Other local fire departments are that might still go include South King Fire and Rescue in Federal Way, and Snohomish County Fire District 7, which serves Monroe, Bothell, and Snohomish.

Southern California is in a state of emergency. Entire cities remain under evacuation, and residents from San Diego to Ventura are bracing for more of the unprecedented evacuations and road closures that shut down freeways and drove so many from their homes at the start of the holiday season. Thursday has been a dangerous day for thousands of firefighters on the front lines, and tense for fire refugees waiting to see if their homes and even their cities survive the day.

The fires are not close to being contained. Two people have died and another 200,000 have been forced to evacuate their homes.

Patch reporter Paige Austin contributed to this report

Photo: Fire crews work among destroyed homes at the Rancho Monserate Country Club community Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017, in Fallbrook, Calif. The wind-swept blazes have forced tens of thousands of evacuations and destroyed dozens of homes in Southern California.

Photo by Gregory Bull/Associated Press