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“The Southern California fire chiefs do believe strongly that this is affecting our local communities,” said San Bernardino County Fire Chief Dan Munsey, who together with Fennessy and other fire chiefs took their concerns to Forest Service Region 5 Director Jaime Gamboa at a meeting in Lake Arrowhead in July.

Of the roughly 25 Forest Service stations in San Bernardino County, only 11 or so are staffed at any given time, at best, Munsey said.

Over the last five years, the fire agencies of Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Ventura counties have together responded to, on average, 11,263 incidents on federal lands each year, according to figures compiled by Munsey.

Although wildland fires are a relatively small share of those incidents, they represent a growing burden that has resulted in more and longer responses in federal jurisdictions, Munsey said.

“There was nobody in the mutual aid system,” Munsey said.