REDDING, Calif. – There's following in your dad's footsteps. And then there's battling three fires with him in four months, including two of the worst in California history.

That's how the last few months of 2018 turned out for Brenna Jones as she started her firefighting career on the Carr, Delta and Camp fires along with her dad, Wade Jones.

"We weren't side by side, but we could hear what was going on on their end of the fire,"

Brenna Jones said. "It's comforting just knowing that you have someone there that's doing the same things that you’re doing."

Brenna Jones works for the U.S. Forest Service, while her dad works for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. While the names on their uniforms meant they weren't side by side on the fire line, the Joneses, both residents of the Redding, California, area, still met up for dinner or breakfast at the fire camp as much as they could.

"I was always looking where Brenna was at (on the shift plan)," Wade Jones said. "Dinnertime's a good time to make sure everyone's OK."

Wade Jones was at the Delta Fire before his daughter showed up, so he found her and even gave her a beanie to keep her warm during campouts, Brenna Jones said.

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"Sometimes there's a lot made about the Forest Service and Cal Fire as being a rivalry, but truly, they’re all out doing the same work, working hard on behalf of the people they serve," said Tara Jones, Wade's wife and Brenna's mom. "I'm just so thankful for all of them, no matter what uniform they wear."

Brenna Jones had been a teacher for the past six years and only started looking into firefighting on a whim. But when she got into a program that trains female firefighters, "It was like the coolest thing I ever did," she said.

And it wasn't a gradual transition.

While she trained during last year's Thomas Fire in Southern California, Brenna Jones officially started as a firefighter barely a week after her teaching job ended in early June. And with all the historically devastating fires that have happened since then, Tara Jones said her daughter racked up hundreds of hours of overtime.

"She’s got a couple of years experienced crammed into one year," Tara Jones said.

Brenna isn't the only one in the family to fight fire. Tara Jones used to be a firefighter as well, and one of the couple's other daughters, Kayla, has fought fire on her summer breaks from college.

"It is something that’s discussed over the dinner table," Wade Jones said. "It’s pretty much our life."

Still, Wade Jones said it was stressful having such a terrible fire season be Brenna's first.

"Teacher to firefighter — it’s kind of interesting," he said. "You do think about it and worry about it."

But at the end of the day, he knows his daughter is a "very capable and well-educated" firefighter whose passion for the job will help her go far.

"She’s proud of me, and I’m proud of her," Wade Jones said. "It puts a big smile on my face, for sure."

Follow Alayna Shulman on Twitter: @ashulman_RS