Community offers aid

Though Burlingame is hundreds of miles away from the Palisades fire, the community quickly mobilized to assist. Starting from Tuesday, Jan. 7, San Mateo County deployed more than 150 personnel to the Los Angeles area.

“My mom is a firefighter, and so she knows a lot of people from San Francisco that are even [volunteering to] go down and help,” junior Natalia Spaelti said. “A lot of firefighters from San Francisco, from everywhere, like San Mateo and across California [are] going down to help do anything that they can.”

Deputy Fire Marshal Austin Seely of the San Mateo County Fire Department was among those dispatched to battle the Palisades fire. As an Unmanned Aircraft Systems Pilot, Seely specialized in mapping and monitoring fires from a helicopter to update a database with real-time information. 

“You know [a moment like this] happens once in your 30-year career,” Seely said. “But unfortunately, there’s been so many of them now, between the Palisades and the Paradise Fire and Santa Rosa fires.”