What is being called the worst year for wildfires in California in modern history just got worse for one San Diego family.
The family of Corey Iverson. Corey was 32 years old, a husband and a father of one child and another child who’s five months old in his wife’s womb, that he will not see born.
Cal Fire also lost Corey, a member of their firefighting team who died this week fighting the Thomas Fire, a fire that is nearing becoming the largest fire in the state’s history.
The news of Corey’s loss among his fellow firefighters spread along the fire lines like some of the flames from the fires they fight, stunned by the news but not letting it deter them from the battle they have been fighting for almost half a month.
Yet it was difficult for the Cal Fire commanders to have to release the news about what had happened. The state’s Cal Fire chief was fighting back tears as he talked about Corey and the kind of person and firefighter he was.
He could have been describing any of the thousands of firefighters who have been battling the wildfires across the state this year from San Diego to Santa Barbara to Santa Rosa.
They do what they do because they know someone has to do it, that someone has to protect the rest of us from these fires and they do it to serve the rest of us. And they do it with the courage and dedication that firefighters everywhere display every day.
As we celebrate the gift of Christmas this year, we all need to remember the gift of these brave and dedicated firefighters like Corey Iverson.
(Photo credit 10News)