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Cal OES Region 6 fire coordinator warns of strained mutual-aid capacity, unpaid reimbursements
Summary
Big Pine Fire Chief Damon Carrington told the Inyo County Board of Supervisors that 2024 mutual-aid deployments and recent wind-driven fires exposed staffing and equipment shortages, slow reimbursement timelines and a need for better prepositioning and communications systems across the region.
Big Pine Fire Chief Damon Carrington, who serves as the Cal OES Region 6 coordinator, told the Inyo County Board of Supervisors that 2024 was an unusually busy year for mutual-aid deployments and that the region still faces shortages of equipment and personnel.
“Most of the guys are only making $45 an hour. But they'll get a check for $8,900 depending on how they're looked at,” Carrington said, describing how departments account for personnel and engine hourly rates on out‑of‑county assignments and why department finances matter when committing resources.
Carrington outlined the year’s incidents — including the Quality, Horseshoe and Line fires — and said Inyo departments deployed multiple task forces out of county while also running local responses. He told the board mutual‑aid prepositioning (including Callaway prepositions) helps, but approvals are stringent and the state’s object codes and payment categories do not always match the variety of mission types such as snow, swiftwater rescue or wildland fires.
“We're still owed quite a bit of money,” Carrington said, describing outstanding reimbursements the Big Pine department and others were still waiting on from state and federal partners.
Board members pressed Carrington on how prepositioning is authorized and what triggers requests; he said decisions rely on local operational indicators — flows, forecasted run‑off, weather and EOC intelligence — and that sometimes teams must pull resources from far afield (Riverside, Sacramento or San Francisco) to meet need. Carrington also discussed communication challenges during incidents and showed how the Watch Duty app and camera networks have improved situational awareness for some areas.
Supervisors and staff raised possible policy responses, from exploring paid firefighter positions to pursuing short‑ and long‑term water storage and infrastructure upgrades for local suppression needs. Carrington cautioned capacity will remain constrained in 2025 unless staffing and federal/state resourcing practices change.
