After two weeks battling California wildfires, Utah firefighters return home in time for Christmas

With warm hugs in the cold air, families on Saturday welcomed home 22 Utah firefighters back from a 16-day assignment battling wildfires in southern California.

A seven-vehicle convoy from the Greater Salt Lake Unified Fire Authority’s Northern Task Force 1 carried the men home, rolling along Navigator Drive, where they parked in front of the authority’s logistics building. Once the firemen — 18 Unified firefighters and four from West Valley City — started getting out of the trucks, children ran to greet the men, as their wives stood patiently in the parking lot. A few posed for photos with each other.

After a few minutes of hugs from family and pats on the back from Unified officials, the firefighters and families went inside, where four large pizzas were brought in.

But the firefighters’ work wasn’t done. After an informal debriefing in the foyer, the men brought their vehicles around the building for cleaning and to prepare for future assignments.

Northern Utah Task Force 1 was one of five crews that left Utah to fight wildfires in southern California and was the last outfit to return. In total, more than 100 Utah firefighters joined crews from seven other Western states to battle the blazes.

Task Force 1 started its assignment on the Lilac Fire near San Diego, which burned 4,100 acres. The group then moved to put out hot spots in and around Ojai, Calif., from the Thomas Fire, which has burned more than 273,400 acres and is the largest wildfire in modern California history.

As of Friday, the Thomas Fire was 65 percent contained. At its peak, some 8,500 firefighters were mobilized to battle the fire; as of Friday, CNN reported, that number was down to 2,800, as crews like the Utah task force were sent home.

For Jeff Holbrook, who has been a firefighter for 18 years, and his wife, Desi, reunions like the one Saturday are just another part of their lives.

“It doesn’t feel like a grand homecoming. That’s what he does all summer,” Desi Holbrook said. “When I was young, I used to super-worry, but that would drive you crazy. It’s not a job, it’s who they are, and that’s what you love about them.”

The Holbrooks have five kids, and Desi said they picked up the slack — particularly their oldest, Dallan, 17, who would shovel walkways and drive his siblings where they needed to go.

Jeff Holbrook spends most summers fighting wildfires, but this is the second year in a row he has been called away for winter wildfires. Last year, he spent two weeks, through Thanksgiving and into early December, fighting wildfires in North Carolina and Georgia.

“It kind of feels that may become the new normal,” he said.

The Holbrooks, meanwhile, are ready for a low-key Christmas.

“Just to be home and to be with my family is going to be wonderful,” Jeff Holbrook said.