Daniela Berson
WMAL.com
RICHMOND (WMAL) — A crew of 20 wildland firefighters are arriving in Alaska to help suppress the 160 square miles of wildfires across the state.
The firefighters are expected to stay in Alaska for two weeks, as they combat the blaze during the West’s fire season.
Fred Turck, Assistant Director of Resource Protection at the Virginia Department of Forestry, said that when western fire departments run out of resources, they often request assistance from around the country.
“They may be replacing some firefighters that are on a line, or they may be going to fires where they just don’t have enough firefighters yet,” Turck said.
Five fire crews are heading to Alaska together. The virginia crew of 18 men and two women consists of mostly veterans and several rookies.
“This not only gives our firefighters training and experience when we need them here back in Virginia, but also it’s kinda of helping your neighbors out,” Turck said, “because there are times when we get into bad fire seasons here in the East where we call for help and we’ve had firefighters from out west come to Virginia to help us at times so it’s a networking of firefighters that can go wherever the need is.”
Wildfires are a persistent problem in the West, especially during the fire season that stretches from June to October.
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