Firefighters helped ease evacuated residents' fears over the weekend when they provided text message updates as they protected homes from a wildfire that threatened a neighborhood in Orange County.
Christine Russell received updates from Newport Beach Fire Station No. 6 during the tense hours of the Aliso fire firefight. She was at a relative's house as the fire chewed through brush in a canyon near her house.
Capt. Brad Smith sent Russell texts from the frontline. She then forwarded those to her neighbors.
"It said, I want you to know that my engine has been assigned to your house, and we are stationed in the back," Russell said. "Just to get a visual that I am in a cozy bed at my sister-in-law's house and he is in my backyard, fighting to save my house. It's almost hard to believe."