As firefighters descended on the Lilac Fire in Bonsall early Tuesday, several crews helping battle the blaze were from outside San Diego County and even California, with many hailing from more than 1,000 miles away in Oregon. At least 200 emergency personnel responded to the fire that began around 1 a.m. near Old Highway 395 and Lilac Road, officials said. The fire spread to roughly 80 acres before crews got it under control by late morning. Relevant content: North County 18 hours ago Evacuations lifted after brush fire erupts in Bonsall Wildfires 10 hours ago Map: Where fires are burning in San Diego County Personnel from several fire departments in Oregon were part of the effort: Estacada, Clackamas, Hoodland and Molalla, among other agencies. Clackamas water tender Dan Mulick said he led one of 21 strike teams from Oregon who were requested through a mutual aid system and came down to assist in Southern California amid a period of dangerous Santa Ana winds and red flag warnings. Those strike teams totaled nearly 400 people, he said. “We had an immediate response, being January, a lot of availability and a lot of eagerness to come in and help,” Mulick said. He said his team came down on Jan. 12, driving two days to pre-position themselves for two weeks in Riverside County to respond to any fires that may pop up. Mulick noted this effort was particularly important to him and his colleagues after fighting massive, devastating wildfires in 2020 back home in Oregon. “We were requesting help from everybody, and everybody from around the region came to help,” Mulick said. “And ever since then, our county and the Portland metropolitan area has had a whole new level of respect for the mutual aid process. So anytime a big fire comes up in the region, everybody understands what that good feeling is when help shows up … We want to return the favor.” Mulick said mutual aid “has existed in the fire service since the beginning of the fire service.” “Oregon does not have the resources that California has,” he continued, “but when they get stretched down here, it really shows the importance of that relationship when we can activate 400 firefighters and come down here amongst the thousands and thousands in the state of California. So it’s such an important concept to have that mutual aid just kind of at your beck and call.” Cal Fire said having those firefighters in place was key in slowing the rapid rate of spread of the Lilac Fire. “Having those resources pre-position is vital in the event that there is an emergency incident with these current weather conditions,” Cal Fire Capt. Robert Johnson said, calling the dry brush and high winds “a recipe for disaster.” Though Johnson added that extra aid is not common in what’s usually San Diego County’s rainy season, which has so far been the driest winter on record. “We tend to see this, though, in the summer months and not necessarily in the winter months,” Johnson said of the mutual aid. “So seeing resources from out of state in the month of January is abnormal for us.” Mulick said the January firefight in Southern California required “a completely different mindset” for Oregonians. But he said it also serves as training for them to learn how to work on different types of fires, on different landscapes, noting in the northwest, they don’t encounter the challenge of dry conditions and a lack of water. He called it “a completely different animal” but said they had long expected to make the journey. “We knew the Santa Anas blow, and we knew that there was critical fire danger down here in Southern California,” Mulick said. “So it wasn’t a huge surprise that we ended up down here. I’m thankful that we got here as fast as we did.”