Two-thirds of the Redding Fire Department was helping out on the Laverne Fire in Happy Valley Tuesday.
Six of the city’s nine engines were deployed to the Happy Valley incident. Chief Gerry Gray says that with resources running thin, more and more agencies are relying on each other to provide mutual aid. We wanted to know what would have happened if a major incident broke out in the city of Redding at the same time.
Gray says Redding sent resources specifically to protect the city as the fire burned to the north.
"Sooner or later we would have had every engine committed to this fire as it burned into the city,” he said.” So we thought we better hit it hard and help our Cal Fire neighbors as quickly as we can and it worked out.”
Gray says that California has an extensive mutual aid system. Redding currently has a crew in Fresno County and had crews in Butte County last week to deal with the Wall Fire.