Four firefighters and a brush engine from Morongo Valley were sent to fight the King Fire in El Dorado County Tuesday afternoon. Fire Chief Jock Johnson said Captain Jeff Rarey, Engineer Christopher Palmer, Firefighter/Paramedic Richard Gilmartin, and Firefighter Jorge Partida were given less than 30 minutes to hit the road, and can expect to be gone for up to two weeks. Brush engines have a mobile pump with 500 gallons of water and are designed to travel over rugged terrain. As of late last night, the King Fire had burned nearly 28,000 acres, with more than 1,632 homes threatened, and is only 5 percent contained. Almost 3,300 firefighters are working the massive blaze.
