Monday, July 26, 2021

2021 wildfire season: eastern area helping in the west

As this devastating wildfire season continues in the western U.S., I found myself wondering how States in the Eastern Area Coordination Center were helping in the west. Based on prior years, I knew that it was likely that wildland fire crews and engines in the eastern U.S. were helping in the west. So, I went to the Eastern Area Coordination Center to see what I could find out. I found my answer under predictive services in the resource summary page (the page I went to was dated July 24, 2021), what you see will be different.

To summarize what I saw as of Friday July 24, 2021 the Midewin International Hot Shot Crew was deployed to Montana and two type 2 IA (initial attack crews), one from Delaware and the other from Pennsylvania were also deployed to Montana.

There were a number of engines (and crew) deployed to Montana, California, Idaho, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. These engines came from all over the eastern area, including but not necessarily limited to Delaware, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Maine, Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri, and Ohio. Several states sent more than one engine. As I understand it the engines may or may not stay out west depending on the need in their home state, with engine crews rotating out after two weeks and may be replaced by new crews. 

I would like to thank all the crews and engine crews for your service helping the western states in their devastating wildfire season. You honor us with your service. Stay safe. 

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