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As many UCLA students watch the rampant brushfire in Southern California from the safety of their rooms, others close to the Bruin family have been called upon to face the neighboring firestorms.

Los Angeles Fire Department Station 37, less than a 20-minute walk away from campus, on Veteran Avenue, has dispatched strike teams to provide relief to firefighters who have been in the field for days.

These are the same firefighters who were at UCLA Homecoming and who respond to automatic fire alarms at UCLA. The station answers around 10 to 15 calls a day and is in one of the busiest areas in Los Angeles County, serving UCLA, the Wilshire Corridor and Sunset Boulevard.

A strike team from the station was sent out to Yucaipa Wednesday afternoon and could be going to Big Bear, Wrightwood and Lake Arrowhead if the wildfires move east, said Armando Jaimes, a captain at Station 37.

A strike team consists of five members and one fire engine whose purpose is to respond to spreading fires.

The fires in the area close to Yucaipa are forest fires instead of brushfires. These fires “crown” the tops of trees, which fire engines and firefighters cannot easily reach. The team will join the other hundred or so strike teams already there, Jaimes said.

The Station 37 strike team is expected to be there for four or five days straight on 24-hour shifts with little or no rest and working under harsh conditions.

“You are lucky if you even get a little water because it is really hot up there,” said Darin Cook, a firefighter with Station 37.

His fellow firefighter, UCLA alumnus Don Thompson, suffered second- and third-degree burns on his leg when he helped fight forest fires near homes in Highland over the weekend, Jaimes said. Thompson, a former UCLA track star, serves as both a firefighter and a paramedic.

On Monday, Jaimes and firefighter Robert Wedlock were two of five firefighters from the station sent to monitor the Simi Valley and Val Verde fires which were seen approaching the 118 Freeway.

It was thought the fire might spread because of the high winds, which Jaimes estimated at around 25 to 30 miles per hour. The fire retreated back into Santa Clarita.

Although Jaimes, Cook and Wedlock have not seen much action with these latest fires, they expressed a desire to serve.

“This is what we train for and what we go out to do. We’re anticipating going out there this Saturday to relieve (firefighters) because the fire is looking like its heading east into the Big Bear Lake area, where evacuation has already started,” Cook said.

Jaimes, who has family in the burning Stevenson Ranch area, agrees.

“I love to go out there and give the guys relief,” he said.