LANCASTER, Calif. – Instead of sirens it is the sound of a helicopter that you hear as these firefighters get to their destination. They are part of the Angeles National Forest Helitack crew based out of Lancaster.

Helitack crews are teams of firefighters who are transported by helicopter to wildfires.

“I work specifically for Helitack crew because flying in a helicopter is a heck of a way to get to a fire,” says Kevin Christy, a Helitack squad leader.  

Christy became a firefighter 18-years ago after he took a fire science class in high school.

“I was fortunate enough to have a job offer after that and my first fire season I fell in love with it and I’ve been fighting fire ever since,” says Christy.

Now Christy is the squad leader and makes sure his team is ready to go within five to seven minutes. During his interview with Spectrum News 1, Christy and his team were called to a fire in Kern County.

Each call is different and when you’re fighting wild land fires. These firefighters never know how long they will be on a call, it could be hours, days or even a week spent away from family and loved ones.

“It’s a taxing job both physically and mentally, it can become fatiguing and when you’re out all season going from fire to fire, it can get mentally stressful,” said Christy.

When fire season heats up the Helitack crew is putting out fires every day, but most fires are put out before they ever make it on the news. When they are not fighting fires, they are preparing.

The crew is studying what happened in the Cramer fire in Idaho where two Helitack firefighters died on July 22, 2013. The hope is by studying what happened they will know how to respond in a similar situation. Making sure they stay safe and are ready to respond when the next fire starts.