About a dozen more Utah fire engines and crews are now in California. Matthew McFarland is an information officer with Unified Fire Authority. He says since these crews have mostly structure fire training they are not likely to be on front fire lines.
"Something structure engines could be very adept at is identifying which ones are most savable and which ones could be savable with a little bit of work. And then which ones might be a total write-off because their homeowners haven't done any proactive work to make their homes more defensible."
The additional personnel and equipment could be there for up to three weeks, according to McFarland.
Jurisdictions and agencies sending fire engines include Salt Lake City, Unified Fire Authority, Provo, West Valley, West Jordan, South Jordan, Draper and Pleasant Grove.
The additional engines raise Utah's total deployment of fire engines to California to 31.
