HIGHLAND, Calif. — When it comes to wildfires igniting in California, it’s not a matter of if, but when. So firefighter Aaron Harkless of the San Manuel Fire Department checks his gear at the start of every shift.

“We don’t exactly know what we’re going to get, so we have to make sure we check everything and make sure it’s working,” said Harkless, a 33-year-old probationary firefighter with the department. 

What You Need To Know

  • The San Manuel Fire Department is located within the San Manuel Indian Reservation

  • The department has responded to 6,000 calls this year. That number has doubled in the last year with 40% of calls for fire and emergency medical services off the reservation

  • Several members of the agency are currently assisting in fighting wildfires up in Northern California

  • The department has recently hired nine new firefighters

He checks and double-checks everything from his wild land fire gear to his PASS device — short for personal alert safety system — that firefighters carry on their backs.

“If a firefighter goes into a building and he’s injured or stops moving, or goes unconscious, we have a PASS device that’ll alert other firefighters that he's in need of help,” said Harkless.

Everything needs to be ready because fire season doesn’t end in California. Wildfires are an everyday threat to the Serrano people, also known as the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, whose reservation sits right on the side of a steep hill in San Bernardino County.

Firefighters are trained to protect life first and property second. Here, the agency is also protecting the tribe’s history and culture.

“They give me the opportunity, someone from the outside, if I can say that, they give me the opportunity to come here and take care of the Serrano people,” said Harkless.

The agency just hired nine new people to protect the reservation, which is home to 200 people. Calls for fire and EMS services this year are approaching 6,000. That’s double the amount of calls made last year, with 40% of them coming from off the reservation.

Harkless works closely with Captain Frank Inzirillo, who says some of the team are battling wildfires up north.

“Every year in California, it gets worse and worse,” said Captain Inzirillo.

The captain has been with the department for 10 years. He says the Southland could see wildfires and other agencies coming down to assist soon.

“The hotter and dryer it gets and as our temperatures start to change here, temperatures will continue to rise and the winds will start happening,” said Captain Inzirillo.

In the past, the department’s firefighters responded to Sept. 11, hurricanes and wildfires up and down the state of California every year, as it’s part of the California Mass Mutual Aid Program. 

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“With fire season lasting year round and the drought conditions in the state and most of the West Coast as I’ve encountered for many years, it makes for a very difficult time for the entire fire service in California. One of the big challenge[s] is the location that we’re in with the wild land urban interface, right up on the side of the hill. Wildfires are an every day threat for the reservation and the community that lives here, whereas most areas of the country [has] a fire season, we don’t have that anymore,” said Deputy Fire Chief Keith Alexander, also of the San Manuel Fire Department.

Harkless is in his first probationary year with the department. Growing up, he says he wanted to be a firefighter.

“I always wanted to help people. I also believe that God has a calling in my life. He placed a purpose in my life and that is to help people,” said Harkless.

While he doesn’t live on the reservation, Harkless says he sees the Serrano people as family and that their home is also his home to protect.