Firefighters from the Los Angeles city fire department had just returned to their station after responding to the mass shooting at the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, Calif. when they saw smoke filling the sky.
Roughly 12 hours after responding to one horrific incident, they were on their way to another.
That afternoon they were fighting the Woolsey Fire, one of the largest on record to burn in Los Angeles County, according to member station KPCC. They didn’t get a break until one week later, when they finally asked for help.
Because of a longer fire season and chronic understaffing, firefighters are left exhausted, overworked and emotionally taxed — and overtime is becoming a point of contention.