International crews fight historic Los Angeles wildfires [Video]

LOS ANGELES — On a recent day fighting the Los Angeles wildfires, a fire crew’s radios crackled to life, warning of nearby flames as helicopter blades thudded overhead. Juan Tapia — an experienced firefighter from Morelia, Mexico — tore out scrub brush as tall as himself, just days after arriving in California. And Karley Desrosiers, fresh from British Columbia, scrambled to communicate the latest update on the fire to an anxious public.

At the nearby incident command post — small cities that are rapidly erected to act as a base of operations — workers coordinate aircraft, assess the weather, wash the smoke-soaked clothes of hundreds of firefighters and churn out meals by the tens of thousands everyday.

As wildfires burn across the Los Angeles area, the operation to save homes and people — from those on the fire line to the logistics of feeding thousands of firefighters — is monumental.

The Eaton and Palisades fires that sparked last …