Firefighters are subject to fatigue. Some of them have worked as many as 17 days in a row recently, battling the Camp Fire.
Firefighters during the Camp Fire worked 12 hours a day, in addition to travel time and planning meetings.
Chico Fire Chief Steve Standridge says this a big concern for him because the city's fire department is already understaffed. He says providing mutual aid to both the Camp and Carr fires made the job of protecting the city of Chico even more challenging.
Right now there are 14 on-call duty firefighters, but Standridge would like to add at least three more positions.
"My challenge is working with city leaders, like the officials, to start to incrementally get us back a safe and efficient staffing model," Standridge said.
He says having a minimum of 17 firefighters will allow for more training and planning, which he believes will keep his firefighters safer.