Grandmom Sue Carroll of Lebec was almost giddy to hear that her grandson, “Awesome Austin,” was safely on his way home to share Christmas dinner with his family this week. Austin Carroll, 19, is a 2016 Frazier Mountain High School (FMHS) graduate who was on the front lines battling the Thomas fire for most of the month of December.

His Tehachapi Wildland Fire Crew No. 11 often worked 24-hour shifts with very little sleep, sometimes dropping at the end of the shift in a…(please see below to view full stories and photographs)

Photo captions:

Now shhhhh…These boys need some serious zzzz’s

Left: FMHS graduate Austin Carroll of Lebec, a 2016 winner of the Shelly Mason Award for Academic Excellence, lies exhausted (center, on his back, boots spread) after fighting the Thomas fire through the night on Dec. 19-20, dreaming of being home for Christmas dinner.

This eerie image is the remains of a Ventura home by Neenach photographer Jeff Zimmerman, a stark aftermath of the raging, destructive Thomas fire fueled by Santa Ana winds and dry foliage.

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This is part of the December 29, 2017 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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