Some National Guard units have already been helping with firefighting and air-tanker drops, but the request made Monday will bring in 200 active-duty soldiers from Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma, Wash. The department is operating under a “draw down”, which calls for overtime shifts.
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Officials say more than 50 structures have been destroyed and the number is likely to go higher.
Ammon, Burley, Iona and Swan Valley left to aid in the Kamiah and Scriver fires Sunday. That’s according to a press release from the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.
But firefighters are gaining ground against the wildfire with 85 percent containment reported Monday.
The plane flew over a Chelan neighborhood dumping fire retardant, Jalopnik reports. In the field, firefighters have to get one day off after working for 14 straight days.
They were tired and resting Monday, but getting ready to hit the road again on Wednesday.
“But naturally, we are a little bit wary of what’s going to happen”, Greendeer said.
Struiksma has seen his fair share of wildfires in the last eight years.
Fires continued to rage across Washington and Idaho on Monday as thousands of firefighters were deployed from the parched rain forests of the Olympic Peninsula to the dun hills of Stevens County.
These hotshot teams know the potential of Utah seeing a big wildfire this season is still out there.
The fire also prompted evacuations at nearby Diamond Lake Resort.
According to CNN, California has raised the red flag warning in some areas, as a result of the four-year drought that the state has suffered from.
In California, 13,000 firefighters are battling 19 active fires. It is 10 percent contained.
Late Monday, Fires are burning in seven states.
Ten firefighters were treated for heat exhaustion, dehydration and minor injuries.
In the meantime, another fire near Baker City has burned 18,600 acres. Through that date in 2014, there were 3,047 fires that burned 87,988 acres. “We’re prepared for a certain amount of fire”, Johnson said.
The cause of the fire is unknown. The combined acreage for the fire is currently 43,240 acres. Nearly as many residents had also been evacuated from the area.
The declaration authorizes the state fire marshal to mobilize fire resources from around the state to protect homes. The fire has spread north into Canada, where drivers are being detoured from major highways, Foster said. In Northern Idaho, more than 40 homes were lost near the town of Kamiah and in Oregon a lightning-sparked blaze on the Malheur National Forest has grown to more than 60 square miles and has destroyed at least 26 homes.
Winds out of the north were producing such a thick haze in some areas that people believed the fire was nearby. Weather cooperated with firefighters to help save some buildings in the fire’s path, but not all of them. “We would have to keep hosing ourselves down, because it was so hot”. More than 1,500 people had fled the city. “I’ve fought fire in the past, but it’s different when your home, your family, and all your possessions are sitting in the way”, evacuee Joel Bernatz told KOMO.
“This happens to other people”, said Tom, a 55-year-old horticulturalist.
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Eleven separate wildfires forced the closure of the Pacific Crest Trail between Glacier Pass and Holman Pass.
