Las Cruces firefighter battling California wildfires

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico -- There are hundreds of wildfires burning over one million acres in several parts of California.

To help battle the blaze, Levi Gomez, a firefighter for the U.S. National Forest Service for 15 seasons, left Las Cruces and headed to the Dolan fire in Big Sur.

"The terrain is very difficult to navigate here as far as ground resources, so for me it's new coming from a different region," said Gomez.

Gomez works the night shift and told ABC-7 they are briefed before every shift and then get broken up into smaller groups.

"We take on little objectives at a time, we compartmentalize everything," said Gomez. "We take things slow and make sure that everybody hits their targets for that specific shift."

Aside from the fires, the smoke has been so thick, it's hard to see.

"It was hard to get air resources near to get a birds-eye view of what strategies to use," said Gomez.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, the Dolan fire is burning 20,091 acres and is only 10 percent contained.