Holloway, speaking by telephone Tuesday morning, is a crewmember on a Porterville Fire Department engine provided by the state Office of Emergency Services. He, Capt. Larry Stucker, and firefighters Tim Clark and Aaron Brunelle, were assigned to a strike team of engines sent to the conflagration Friday.
A second Porterville engine, manned by Capt. Glenn Irish, engineer Rick Land and firefighter Shannon Skiles, was assigned to another strike team sent to fight the blazes on Saturday.
The Porterville crews, along with a three-firefighter crew from the Lindsay Department of Public Safety, and hundreds of other personnel from agencies in Tulare County, are part of a firefighting force which had grown to more than 10,000 people Tuesday.
The OES engine crew was initially assigned to a base camp at Glen Helen Park in San Bernardino, he said.
The crew was sent out Saturday morning to Lytle Creek, a small community in the mountains.
"The fire was raging into it," Holloway said.
Firefighters worked to protect buildings from the fire, but flames quickly ignited them. The fire raged up the canyon and flying embers set other fires.
"The fire spotted around the canyon," Holloway said. "We had Santa Ana winds gusting to 40 to 60 mph."
"We spent all day there and until midnight and then came back to base camp," he added.
He said the activity at Lytle Creek was part of the Grand Prix Fire, and Sunday the crew was assigned to the Old Fire, located right outside the area where they had been staging.
"We were assigned for structure protection on I-15, right on the highway," Holloway said.
Once again the flames came at the firefighters, driven by Santa Ana winds.
"The fire blew across the highway and right into us," he said. "The winds just blew the fire right through us. We were on a small farm with horses, chickens, cattle, haystacks. We saved it all."
"We had a big junkyard right next door that burned. We couldn't keep the fire out of it," he added.
The Porterville crew was part of a team dispatched Sunday afternoon to Devore.
"We were again assigned to structure protection for homes on the sides of the hills, houses in the brush and chaparral," Holloway said.
Firefighters burned out an area in an effort to block the spread of the fire, but once again wind-driven flames blew into the area.
"I don't know how many houses were lost," he said. "There were initially about 50 houses there, and (after the fire hit) there were only about 10 left," he said.
Firefighters mopped up the area, putting out the remaining fire.
Monday, the crew was assigned to Rancho Cucamonga, working to protect "million-dollar houses right on the edge of town against the mountains."
"We spent the whole day there," Holloway said. High winds continued.
Firefighters were assigned to Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park in San Dimas on Tuesday, Holloway said.
The Porterville crew and other firefighters worked to "mop up" the west end of the Grand Prix fire.
Tuesday, the winds had calmed somewhat.
"We're supposed to get an onshore wind blowing east," Holloway said. "We really haven't seen the Santa Anas."
For the first couple of days, "they started at 3 a.m. and just howled through base camp," he said.
While a lot of the homes in the area adjacent to the wildland have clear areas around them, that clearance didn't do much good in the face of the high winds.
"People have been seeing homes with tile roofs just literally exploding around them," Holloway said.
Firefighters have been working long, tiring days, although the pace appeared to be slowing some Tuesday.
"We've usually been up at about 5:30 a.m.," Holloway said. "With a briefing at 7 a.m. and we've been going out at 7:30 a.m. The first night we got back to camp at midnight, and at about 10 p.m. on the second night. Last nigh,t it was about 8."
Holloway said the OES crew met up with the other Porterville crew at the base camp Monday.
"They were at Mt. Baldy for two days. They got stuck up there because the road was closed," he said. "They said they drove through a fire storm."
The Lindsay Department of Safety crew was working to protect homes in the Ramona area Tuesday, Cyndi Rios of the Department of Public Safety said.
The Lindsay crew includes Greg Simeral, David Hernandez and Lorenzo Leyva.
Officials from Tulare County Fire Department /California Department of Forestry and the Sequoia National Forest reported no changes in the numbers of personnel and equipment assigned to the Southern California blazes.
Capt. Paul Marquez of the Tulare County Fire Department said the department is already down to the bare minimum personnel and equipment necessary for fire protection in Tulare County.
"We are down to maximum drawdown," Marquez said. "We have to have this amount for adequate fire protection."
The department continues to receive requests for resources, he said, but barring an order from state CDF officials or the county Board of Supervisors, it's unlikely any more people or equipment will be sent out of the county, Marquez said.
Denise Alonzo, public information specialist for U.S. Forest Service, said she was unaware Tuesday of any additional resources being sent out of the area.
