firefighter

In a video shot in the grove around noon, a firefighter pans his camera to reveal trees against a yellow sky thick with smoke.

The 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb benefits the Ventura Fire Honor Guard, which funds funerals and tributes for fallen firefighters and honors those lost in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Top brass at the agency decided not to deploy roughly 1,000 available firefighters and dozens of water-carrying engines in advance of the Palisades fire.

Such a move would strip about $800 million from the city’s general fund budget, which pays for police officers, firefighters and other basic services.

Hundreds of firefighters have been battling the blaze there, with some laying down sprinkler lines to shoot water onto the ancient towering trees.