x

Pharr firefighters on the front lines of the Palisades fire in California

By: Sarah Cervera

Related Story

Three Pharr firefighters are going on week two of fighting the Palisades fire in California.

The Palisades fire has scorched more than 23,000 acres of land.

Channel 5 News obtain videos shared by Pharr Battalion Chief Sergio Vasquez that show the firefighters driving through the streets of California.

The streets lined with the melted and abandoned vehicles and flattened neighborhoods.

RELATED STORY: Pharr firefighters head to California to assist in maintaining deadly wildfires

"It looks like a scene out of a movie, it looks like they dropped a bomb and everything got leveled," Vasquez said. "All the houses pretty much burned down to the foundation, as we are walking checking the structures it looks like a ghost town, nobody is out."

That's what Vasquez and engineers Jesus Gonzalez and Charlie Cavazos have encountered in California while battling the Palisades fire.

"I have never seen anything like this, it doesn't seem real when you get here," Gonzalez said.

The three Pharr firefighters, part of the Alamo Strike Team. It's made up of firefighters from different cities across Texas that have been fighting the flames for almost two weeks.

The firefighters were also tasked with hiking up steep terrain to find and put out hotspots using infrared technology.

"It is tiring on the mind and the body," Cavazos said. "But, I mean, we are built for this, we can keep going."

All three firefighters have family in the Rio Grande Valley, and they haven't been able to speak with them on a daily basis. 

But their love and support from not only their families but the entire Valley is helping them push through.

The three firefighters are expected to be back home sometime next week.

Watch the video above for the full story.

News

Radar
7 Days