Firefighters' village sprouts on Malibu beach
Around 5,000 first responders mingle among trailers and tents, where they are served calorie-laden breakfasts by inmates drafted in to help the enormous effort.
"This is a small town that was built from the ground up," firefighter Edwin Zuniga told AFP of the vast encampment at Zuma Beach, a few miles from the blazes.
The camp comes to life before dawn, as thousands of firefighters line up for breakfast.
Rows of tables are set against the backdrop of crashing waves in a vast open-air dining room.
The standards of dozens of firefighting battalions mark the presence of crews from all over California and the western United States, as well as a contingent of newly arrived Mexicans.
Emotional support dog Ember trots happily along, offering an enthusiastic greeting to anyone and everyone who wants to pet her, a welcome distraction from the long, hard days on the fire's front lines.
"The dogs are great," says the dog's trainer, firefighter Bari Boersma.
"When people pet the dogs, their blood pressure comes down, and they just feel good for a minute," she said.
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day for many firefighters, a chance to load up on calories befores their shift.
The chef's choice on Monday morning was a big heap of "meat, eggs, taters and some kinda bread," according to a menu.
The food is prepared by a team of inmates from California's prisons, brought in to help in one of the biggest disaster responses the state has ever seen.
"This is just an honor and a privilege to be here, serving the community, paying my debt to society, just giving back to people," Bryan Carlton, a 55-year-old who is serving his sentence at a correctional camp, told AFP.
Carlton prepares about 400 gallons (1,500 liters) of coffee throughout his 12-hour shift.
"Firefighters need their coffee," he laughs.
Correctional Officer Terry Cook, who supervises inmates at the base, said he occasionally sees a familiar face among the regular firefighters -- someone who got themselves back on the straight and narrow after serving their sentence.
"I've run into inmates that were at my camp two years ago, and I see them in line here, and I shake their hands, and I say 'congratulations,'" he said.
- Dangerous winds -
Two huge fires in Los Angeles have scorched 40,000 acres (16,000 hectares) since erupting in fierce winds last Tuesday.
At least 24 people have died in the blazes, which have destroyed 12,000 structures and forced 92,000 people from their homes, including the well-to-do Pacific Palisades, just a few miles (kilometers) from the firefighters' camp.
After breakfast, teams prepare their vehicles and arm themselves with snacks, sandwiches, drinks and sweets.
The disparate battalions swap anecdotes and souvenirs as they ready for the day's morning briefing.
New arrivals from chilly Colorado commend the accommodation -- even if it was only sleeping bags on the sand -- as considerably warmer than home.
Others raise a hearty "Bienvenido!" to bid "welcome" in Spanish to a crew from Mexico that just got here.
With the threat of dangerous winds across a swathe of the region, some units are charged with pouncing on new outbreaks, while others are tasked with tamping down the original blaze.
Orders in hand, each team sets off, fanning out along streets into Pacific Palisades, or up into the untamed brush of Topanga Canyon.
Along the way, they greet sooty and exhausted crews coming down from the hills after their day.
For some, it is their first time in the field as part of this firefighting effort; for others, it is one more day in an already long week.
- 'Ready' -
As he readies to climb into Mandeville Canyon, Jake Dean says he has never seen a fire as destructive as this in his 26 years as a firefighter.
"After the first day, many people that I've known for a long time in base camp barely recognized me," he said.
"My phone didn't recognize me to turn on, I was so tired and dirty."
But with huge air operations eating into the fire on all fronts, Dean can feel the work paying dividends.
"Today will be not so bad," he said.
"We'll pace ourselves and drink lots of water and be ready for a long haul of work here and the next fire."
pr/hg/jgc
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