Originally Posted By: hikermor
...professional forces might be momentarily a bit short handed and would benefit from civilian volunteerism, especially if they had some CERT training.

I'm a bit surprised that one of the photos shows a child carrying some of the cribbing. I'm sure the fire fighters would be very careful about keeping bystanders safe around an active fire scene, especially children, so I can only assume they thought it was a benign place to be.