Above: An injured firefighter in Rose Valley near Ojai is carried to a waiting Ventura County Fire Department Helicopter on the Thomas Fire. Photo by Ventura County FD.
(Updated at 10:27 a.m. PST December 18, 2017)
Two firefighters were injured Sunday while battling the Thomas Fire in Southern California, authorities said. One of them was flown out of Rose Valley near Ojai to a hospital. The injuries were minor but the helicopter was used due to the rough terrain.
No further information was available about the second firefighter, who reportedly also had minor injuries.
Cory D. Iverson, a CAL FIRE firefighter from San Diego County, was killed while working on the incident December 14. A firefighter from Redding, California suffered a broken leg December 10 on the same fire.
A very large burnout operation is planned on the north side of the fire in the Sespe wilderness that will add 15,000 to 20,000 acres to the fire. Depending on cooperation of the weather, it will take three to four days to complete the project using aerial and ground ignition.
An unheard of number of firefighters are assigned to the blaze – 8,452. When there were over 5,000 working on the Rim Fire that burned into Yosemite National Park in 2013 we thought that was a huge number.
The fire has burned 270,500 acres in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties since it started December 4. At this size it is the third largest in the recorded history of California, only about 3,000 less than the 273,246-acre Cedar Fire that burned into the suburbs of San Diego in 2003 destroying 2,820 structures and killing 15 people.
