Fire engineer dies fighting California's growing Thomas Fire

A firefighter was killed in southern California's massive Thomas Fire on Thursday. The blaze has grown rapidly, fueled by gusty Santa Ana winds, dry conditions and single-digit humidity. The man, who hasn't been identified, was from a firefighting unit in San Diego. He drove a fire engine and was killed on the east flank of the Thomas Fire, said Lynne Tolmachoff, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as CalFire. He was with a strike team of two or three other crew members and was pronounced dead on scene, she said. The man's death was the first fatality of a firefighter in the recent string of fires burning in southern California. While most of the wildfires are at or near containment, the Thomas Fire was 30% contained Thursday, covering 242,500 acres in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, and was expected to grow...more