How do you fight a massive wildfire and keep almost 2,600 firefighters safe from COVID-19?
Lots of social distancing and masks, of course, but also thousands of pre-packaged salads.
The threat of the coronavirus taking down the firefighting operation during the 27,000-acre Apple fire in Riverside and San Bernardino counties has prompted incident commanders to improvise. No more are the chow lines serve-yourself. Tents that housed 30 inmate hand crew members now hold up to 15. And the fire crews on the front lines are limiting how much they interact with those from outside their circle.
“We have to use as many precautions as we can to prevent an outbreak of COVID or spread of COVID,” said Lt. Nicole Patterson, the Oak Glen conservation camp commander for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.