Blistering hot embers rained from toxic black smoke as hurricane-force winds whipped scorching flames in every direction. Violent explosions erupted continuously, like heavy artillery on a battlefield.
As the Southern California wildfires of early January screamed down a once-idyllic stretch of Sunset Boulevard, consuming everything in their path, fatigued and defenseless firefighters retreated from the advancing inferno to make one final stand.
Fire Station 69—with its meager 500-gallon water reserve—had become Ground Zero for the deadly Palisades Fire.
And with dry fire hydrants and empty reservoirs, and air support water drops grounded by the dangerous Santa Ana gales, firefighters were in a battle for their lives.
Within a few minutes, the firehouse would be protected by two engine companies, a ladder truck and about two dozen firefighters strategically positioned on the roof and around their fire station.
Bob Bates, 64, served 41/2 years as a captain at Fire Station 69 until 2021. He watched in horror the televised news reports about his former fire district. “Half my crew that I retired from is still working there,” Bates said. “My heart just sank for those residents and firefighters. I am still in disbelief, to be honest with you.”
The local fire station has always been a refuge and home away from home for first responders like Bates, who worked for more than 33 years with the Los Angeles City Fire Department.
And although he no longer makes a living responding to 911 calls at all hours of the day and night, Bates’ passion for serving others remains an eternal calling through his involvement with Firefighters for Christ (FFC) International.
He joined the nonprofit organization about 10 years ago to grow in his faith in Jesus and service for the Lord and to encourage fellow firefighters to do the same. The international ministry, which includes about 1,000 current and retired firefighters globally, leads emergency training and response teams in disaster-plagued regions around the world.
Bates, who became a Christian in his early 40s, volunteered during the recovery and cleanup following the catastrophic 2023 Lahaina wildfires in Maui and more recently partnered with Samaritan’s Purse with flood recovery efforts in Burnsville, North Carolina, following Hurricane Helene.
While assisting in the Western North Carolina disaster response, Bates and other FFC members helped lead another volunteer from Canada to profess his faith in Christ. “That was just an awesome praise to see that take place,” Bates said. “The Lord knew that this person needed Christ. He knew that we needed to share Christ with him. It was us being a vessel to share, and the Holy Spirit came in and convicted him.”
In late January, the third-generation firefighter was asked to escort Franklin Graham and other Samaritan’s Purse officials to survey the scorched remains in Los Angeles after helping set up their base camp at Cornerstone Church in the western part of the city.
“I want to give the community a chance to know Jesus, by sharing the Gospel with them” said Bates, who used to pray with residents while on duty after responding to their emergency calls. “I still love those people. There’s so much darkness in this area, we’ve got to turn the lights on.”
And sharing the light of the Gospel is why Firefighters for Christ International exists, said Joe Lindaman, who has been president of the organization since 2018 and a member since its founding in the late 1970s.
What began as a prayer meeting with two firefighters in an upper room of an LA city fire station has grown to a weekly gathering via Zoom with firefighters-turned-prayer warriors from around the world. And dozens of ministry chapters operate out of local fire stations with weekly and monthly Bible studies and prayer groups.
After a 37-year career as a firefighter in Southern California, Lindaman retired to Idaho. But he didn’t stop serving with Firefighters for Christ International. In January, he led a 13-member team doing emergency response training for 11 days in the Philippines. His team included Christian firefighters from Germany, Northern Ireland, California, Idaho and North Carolina.
“We donate our equipment and we train them in auto extrication,” he said. “We train them in swift water rescue. We train them in wildland firefighting. And then we also deliver the Gospel message. All week long during our training, we draw it back to Biblical principles. Out of 160 students, we had 150 who raised their hands to receive Christ after we gave the Gospel message on the last day of graduation.”
Lindaman has trained firefighters in more than a dozen countries, and everywhere he goes he teaches them that while every successful emergency rescue is dependent on a secure anchor point, Jesus is the trustworthy anchor for peace and fulfillment in life. “And that seems to resonate with the students,” he said.
Selflessly serving others during their most vulnerable and desperate moments, Lindaman said, makes the Gospel—empowered by the Holy Spirit—attractive and believable for the most unlikely recipients. While helping with recovery efforts in Japan following a devastating tsunami, Lindaman said his 10-member team helped a Muslim man rebuild his property.
“By the end of the week, that guy ended up accepting the Lord because of our hearts for trying to take care of what he was asking us to do,” Lindaman said. Meanwhile, a firefighter on the mission team who wasn’t a Christian at the time also professed Christ as his Savior and Lord. And when he took his wife to a marriage retreat hosted by Firefighters for Christ International, she professed her faith in Jesus.
Lindaman, 71, is hopeful about the opportunity to more strategically partner with Samaritan’s Purse in the future as the two organizations collaborate to formalize a Memorandum of Understanding.
“We’re a small organization, but we can bring a lot of expertise to a disaster situation,” he said. “Everything we’ve done is lifesaving measures combined with the eternal lifesaving measures. It’s such a great segue from the people’s physical lives to spiritual lives.”
And this isn’t the first time Firefighters for Christ International has partnered with an evangelical ministry for the sake of the Gospel.
In 2015, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s video ministry team shared Cheyane Caldwell’s testimony as part of the ministry’s My Hope America campaign.
In July 2007, Caldwell fell through the roof of a building while fighting a fire in midtown Los Angeles with the LA City Fire Department. He was trapped in the raging inferno for seven minutes and 10 seconds. By the time fellow firefighters rescued him from the flames, he had suffered third-degree burns on a third of his body.
He woke up eight days later, hospitalized in a burn unit and unable to walk. But after 10 months of grueling rehabilitation, including multiple skin grafts and surgeries, Caldwell returned to his job driving the ladder truck despite doctors’ predictions that his career was over.
A couple of years later, Caldwell joined Firefighters for Christ International after meeting the ministry’s late founder, John White. “I would say that before the accident, I was a believer in Jesus Christ,” he said. “But after the accident I was a follower.”
During one of the organization’s mission trips to Mexico to provide firefighter training, Caldwell shared his testimony, and 210 of the 220 people in attendance raised their hands to put their faith in Christ.
Caldwell, 47, now commands one of the largest firefighting boats in the country as part of the LA City Fire Department’s marine division. He has been president of his local chapter of Firefighters for Christ International for seven years. He said he is grateful and humbled that God would use his story along with Billy Graham’s personal invitation through video for viewers around the world to trust in Jesus.
In the video, Caldwell said: “In the middle of this raging inferno, I had peace. The peace that’s rooted in my faith in Jesus Christ. The Scripture that’s embedded in my heart is Romans 5:1, ‘Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ’” (KJV). ©2025 BGEA
Photograph: Thomas J. Petrino / ©2025 BGEA