NJ Red Cross workers head to disaster zone to support relief efforts amid deadly CA wildfires
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Red Cross workers from New Jersey are leaving for California on Thursday to support relief efforts in the fire disaster zone.
The Garden State has faced its own challenges with wildfires due to the recent drought.
"The flight was fine up until Vegas and when we got to Vegas, [it was] very turbulent. 'Stay in your seats,' the pilot warned us," said Dana Olita, from Center City Philadelphia. "I'm thinking I know so many people who had to leave their houses running."
Olita just moved back to Philadelphia after living in Los Angeles for eight years. She had to fly back to California this week for a work trip and saw the fire from her plane window.
RELATED: 5 fatalities confirmed as Southern California wildfires rage; 1,000+ structures destroyed
She is staying about an hour away from Los Angeles right now but says throughout Southern California, there's smoke and the air quality is diminished.
In New Jersey, which just came through a record-breaking active forest fire season, fire crews have not been asked to help in California at this point. But they say they are always ready.
Warden David Achey has been fought fires in California before and recently came back from a fall deployment there.
RELATED: 'It's just heartbreaking': Philadelphia natives in California react to raging wildfires
"We just spent some time in Southern California, we don't have the terrain here -- mountainous terrain," said Achey, a supervising forest fire warden for the New Jersey Forest Fire Service.
