California is desperately summoning help for firefighters from across the country and beyond, with everyone from Gov. Gavin Newsom to overwhelmed fire crews complaining about a severe shortage of resources to fight this growing siege of lightning-sparked blazes.

“These fires again are stretching our resources, stressing our personnel,” Newsom said at a Friday news conference, recalling a visit with exhausted fire crews in San Jose a day earlier who were preparing to go back out on the job. “I was down there in Santa Clara yesterday meeting with some San Jose firefighters that looked completely wiped, saying we need more support. They were simply overwhelmed by what they saw.”

But how strapped are we?

It’s hard to quantify. State officials say they have 12,000 firefighters currently battling wildfires. But California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokeswoman Heather Williams couldn’t say how that compares to past fire seasons and major wildfires, or how many the agency requires at the moment.

“There’s no magic number to say, ‘this number is the effective amount,” Williams said. The 12,000 fire personnel is roughly twice those deployed during the peak of the deadly 2018 Camp Fire.

BOULDER CREEK, CA – AUGUST 20: Volunteer firefighters for the Boulder Creek Fire District and look at the direction of the fire before they are dispatched to battle the CZU August Lightning Complex fire on Aug. 20, 2020, in Boulder Creek, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group) 

A Bay Area News Group analysis of Cal Fire resources reported for current major fires and epic blazes in past years doesn’t suggest any clear difference in terms of firefighters and engines per acre burned when comparing this year’s major wildfires and ones in previous years. However, the figures only represent Cal Fire personnel and equipment, not those of other agencies, so it is not a reflection of the full response.

For example, for the 50,000-acre CZU Lightning Complex fires raging through Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties, Cal Fire had a firefighter for every 49 acres and engine for every 610 acres.

For the 219,067-acre LNU Lightning Complex in the North Bay, Cal Fire had a firefighter for every 207 acres and engine for every 2,148 acres. And for the even more massive 229,968-acre SCU Lightning Complex, Cal Fire had a firefighter for every 206 acres and engine for every 2,277 acres.

By comparison, Cal Fire at last year’s 77,758-acre Kincade Fire, Cal Fire had a firefighter for every 1,414 acres and engine for every 15,552 acres. And for the 153,336-acre Camp Fire in 2018, the agency had a firefighter for every 144 acres and engine for every 2,101 acres.

“So many variables go into what resources are needed, and no fire is the same,” Williams said.

But firefighters on the front lines are quite clear they could use more help.

Bryan Weber, the Ben Lomond Fire Department Battalion Chief and a retired CalFire firefighter, said Friday his biggest problem is lacking resources. His department is currently using all four of the department’s engines. Yet, he said, they could use closer to 50.

“There’s so many fires in the state that we’re just out here trying to pre-treat this area to keep the fire from spreading through the homes without almost any additional resources,” Weber said.

BONNY DOON, CA – AUGUST 20: As the CZU August Lightning Complex fire burns houses near by, Santa Cruz County Central Fire Protection District firefighters work in a residential neighborhood near Empire Grade to protect the remaining homes in Bonny Doon, Calif., in the early morning of Aug. 20, 2020. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group) 

Scotts Valley Mayor Randy Johnson echoed that, saying the roughly 1,000 firefighters they have in the area are under-resourced due to unavailability of aircraft support due to thick smoke.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created additional complications, limiting availability of the low-risk inmate fire crews the state typically relies on, as state officials have urged early release of minor offenders to avoid prison crowding and spread of the disease. Williams said Cal Fire, which is budgeted for 192 inmate fire crews, currently has just 90. But Newsom noted the state approved $72 million to hire more firefighters to make up for that, enough for an additional 838 firefighters — about 56 more crews, which average 15 firefighters.

Newsom phoned his counterparts in 10 states asking them personally to spare firefighting personnel and equipment, and was able to secure 10 engines from Arizona, 25 from Oregon, five from Texas and Nevada, and an another five from New Mexico. Firefighters also are coming in from Australia, where it is currently winter and where California has sent crews to help with their wildfires in recent years.

None of that is particularly unprecedented, Williams said.

“It’s what we do if we get the call we respond with resources too,” she said.

But the nature of the current rash of wildfires makes it a particular strain on firefighting resources, Williams said. Lightning tends to spark dozens of separate wildfires, each of which takes considerable effort to track and tamp down, as opposed to, say, last year’s Kincade Fire, ignited by faulty high-voltage electrical equipment in a single spot during a wind storm.

The sheer number of fires, several of which have merged into monster blazes, creates special challenges, she said. The state’s single largest wildfire was the 459,123-acre Mendocino Complex in 2018.

This year, all told, 771,000 acres have burned since August 15, an area bigger than Yosemite National Park.

Randy Moore, regional forester for the US Forest Service said Northern California is at level 5 on a scale of 1-5 that the Forest Service uses to measure fire severity.

“We expect this heavy fire activity to continue well until the fall,” he said. “We cannot fight every fire the same way. We have to prioritize resources. Life first, then property and infrastructure next.”

Staff writers Maggie Angst, Paul Rogers and Ethan Baron contributed to this report.