A member of the N.C. Forest Service walks to a bus bound for Knoxville, Tenn. Once in Knoxville, the 20 Forest Service crew members will meet up with firefighters from other states to fly to Idaho, where they will help fight wildfires.
The N.C. Forest Service is sending two 20-person crews of firefighters to battle wildfires in Idaho.
Firefighters from the coast and Piedmont left today from the N.C. Forest Service Region 2 headquarters in Chatham County. Traveling by bus to Knoxville, Tenn., they will join crews from Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee to fly to Idaho. They will help with the Trinity Ridge Fire in Pine, Idaho, which started Aug. 12, has grown to more than 37,000 acres and is about 5 percent contained.
A crew from the N.C. mountains flew out of Asheville. The firefighters will work on the Springs Fire, which started Aug. 5 and is located five miles west of Garden Valley, Idaho. It is burning more than 5,980 acres and is 30 percent contained.
In addition to the 40 firefighters who left today, the N.C. Forest Service has 19 additional personnel working on fires in Nevada, Idaho and California.
The requesting agencies will reimburse the state for providing the assistance.