Big Pine Fire Chief outlines mutual-aid strain, prepositioning and volunteer costs in Region 6 update

Big Pine Fire Chief Damon Carrington, who also serves as the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) Region 6 operational-area coordinator, told the Inyo County Board of Supervisors on Jan. 21 that 2024 placed substantial burdens on local departments and that ongoing shortages of personnel and certain apparatus types remain a concern.

Carrington said Inyo County departments deployed repeatedly to out‑of‑county incidents last year, listing the Quality and Horseshoe fires locally and multiple mutual‑aid assignments including the Eaton and Palisades fires. "I think at one time there were 13 pieces of apparatus out," Carrington said, describing simultaneous deployments from Inyo and Mono counties.

The update explained why departments are being asked to preposition resources for other regions and summarized what that costs local volunteer organizations. Carrington said his department has generated significant revenue from out‑of‑county deployments over recent years but that invoices remain outstanding: "This year alone … Big Pine is about $380,000 net made, and you can see in the yellow (on our accounting) is still owed to us," he told the board. He later summarized a six‑year total:…