GREENVILLE, Calif. — For 20 years, Danny Manning has worked to protect his community as a firefighter, becoming all too familiar with scenes of destruction. But this past weekend, he was forced to confront a different kind of loss as he walked among the rubble of his destroyed fire house in Greenville. “This was our crew rig, this is our brand-new engine,” said Mr. Manning, 41, who is a member of the local Native American Maidu community, and its assistant fire chief. On Wednesday, when the Dixie Fire tore through the tiny mountain town 160 miles north of Sacramento, he and his fire engine crew were on a mandatory rest day after a grueling two-week shift fighting the historic blaze. On Sunday, Mr. Manning, who leads a fire crew of 12 people, most of them Maidu, had returned to Greenville to assess the damage.

Source: New York Times August 10, 2021 20:37 UTC