Rogue Valley Strike Team scheduled to return home from fires

According to Ashley Blakely with Fire District 3, the Rogue Valley Strike Team is expected to make it back home by the end of week.

The crew has been working 24-hour periods mostly protecting structures threatened by the Thomas Fire which is now the third largest fire in California state history.

Kimberly Gobel is the wife of one of the firefighters in the strike team.

She says she was thrilled to find out he’ll most likely be back home for the holidays.

“Our oldest daughter is having our first grandson and it’d be really nice to have him home for that,” Gobel said.

Gobel says she was nervous when she heard her husband was going down to California, but she’s proud of the entire crew for the work they’ve done.

The state fire marshal isn’t anticipating anymore need from the Rogue Valley Strike Team in the future, but Blakely says they’d be willing to return in a heartbeat.

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