Firefighters battle massive fire near Hemet from the sky at night

Hemet-Ryan Airport was buzzing with activity Saturday morning as Cal Fire pilots readied to begin another long day battling the deadly Fairview fire a few miles away.

Pilots worked out to blaring heavy metal in an outdoor gym near the tarmac, swinging kettlebells and pounding out pushups in the unseasonably cool weather brought overnight by the remnants of Tropical Storm Kay.

With the Alabama-Texas football game playing on a big screen at one end of the low-slung mess hall, cooks prepared long trays of bacon-wrapped meatloaf for lunch as the last of the morning’s sausage and eggs was put away.

It was a rare moment of downtime for Chris Renner, a forestry fire pilot for the Aviation Management Unit of the California Department of Forestry and