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Venice Parent Contributes To LAFD’s Fire Relief Efforts

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It started with Rapid Santa Ana winds. A wildfire began to develop. Then, he was instantly called to the scene. 

For firefighter York Truin, the recent Palisades fire was unlike any other fire he has ever fought before. 

Truin, a Venice parent, currently works for Los Angeles’ Fire Department Station 19 in Brentwood. Truin’s company was one of the earliest stations notified of the Palisades fire.

Familiar with the Palisades region, Truin was immediately struck by the mass destruction of buildings and loss in the area.

“Some of the areas, that I knew to be there, were no longer there,” he said. “It looked like a war zone.”

Truin’s fire engine was dedicated to the Palisades fire, and Station 19 implemented a water shuttle operation to provide aid. In the water shuttle process, the fire engine team would go to an available fire hydrant, fill it up with water, and then go back to supply water to the fires they were putting out.

“As resources that are closer to the fire are being used, they start bringing other fire engines, fire trucks, and ambulances from nearby stations,” he said. 

 Prior to his transfer to Brentwood, Truin was working on helicopters for 12 years, performing brush firefighting from the sky. Firefighters often go through brush firefighting training to learn the safest way to combat a brush fire. 

“We have extensive training in brush operations,” he said. “Part of that is teaching us the proper way to try and take care of a brush fire in a way that nobody gets injured.”

The Palisades fire differed significantly from past fires Truin has encountered because of a lack of water availability, Santa Ana winds, and dramatic speed of the fire spreading.

“We were constantly trying to play catch up, and after we saw a video of the way the wind was blowing embers and fire through the areas,” he said. “It was unlike any fire that I had seen in the past.”

Truin believes that this fire would have always been difficult to contain because of the unique circumstances.

“It was so fast moving because of the high winds and speed of the winds coming through, which essentially made it burn from where it started all the way to the ocean,” he said. 

“There was no way in this particular incident that we could have extinguished the fires fast enough to keep it from progressing one block after the next after the next.”

While providing aid to the Palisades fire, Truin remembered how important it is to properly prepare for anything, yet also that some things are beyond control.

“They can only train you so far, but some things there’s just not enough training for,” he said.“It reinforced what I always knew—to be ready for anything.”

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