Just days into what will be a very long battle and clean-up for Los Angeles firefighters and one of their biggest supporters says their resources and energy are getting stretched thin. 

“They’re tired, we’re on day five now,” Liz Lin, president of the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation, told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS about the crews on the ground. 

Lin spoke with 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS as she was heading to provide gear at a base camp. 

“I’m heading down there to bring them four monitors because the monitors aren’t working,” Lin said. 

She adds their main mission, among other things, is to make sure the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) has the resources and tools to do their job as well as they can. 

“I can’t tell you how much that they are burning through gloves, goggles, all of those kinds of things that might not be usable that we can help replace. And we should replace it for them,” Lin said about the current situation. 

That’s why since the fires broke out, the foundation shared a “Wildlife Emergency Funding Alert,” which will help provide:

• Emergency Fire Shelters
  • Personal shelters that can be deployed if a firefighter is overrun by flames
• Hydration Backpacks
  • Unique to hold three quarts of water
• Wildland Brush Tools
  • Helping firefighters tackle the terrain while fighting fires

“I’ve told the LAFD, ‘Call me and my team and I, we will take care of everything that we can with your needs.’ Even after this fire is gone, we will provide them with whatever else that they need,” Lin said. 

While some of these firefighters were working, they lost their homes to the fires as well.

That includes several members of the International Association of Fire Fighters union, according to Josh Nelson, a leader of the local chapter of the Minnesota Professional Fire Fighters.

“We know of at least nine homes that have been lost, [owned by our] members there in California,” said Nelson, who’s also a firefighter with the South Metro Fire Department.

“I can only imagine the, you know, that strain for those members,” Nelson added. 

Also telling 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that for those that can support those our west, that help means more than we know. 

“It’ll help knowing that they have America looking out for them and taking care of them,” Nelson said. 

Click here for Hubbard Broadcasting’s state-wide effort to raise funds for the victims of wildfires in Los Angeles.