CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A crew of 20 wildland firefighters from West Virginia is back home now after spending two weeks helping spell weary fire crews in the state of Oregon. The crew, made up of 15 employees of the West Virginia Division of Forestry and five volunteer fire fighters, were on two fires during their deployment.
“There’s a need for crews due to all of the wildfires in the northwest and Rocky Mountain area,” said Walt Jackson, fire supervisor with the West Virginia Division of Forestry. “We may provide some crew members in the near future.”
The crew members who just returned are out of commission for a while. Jackson said they are required to have a period of rest before they can return. They’re in the middle of that rest period.
It’s likely however, there will still be a fire waiting for them when they come off their rest. Many of the veteran firefighters say this trip to the western part of the country showed the driest conditions they had ever seen. Some of them have been helping battle the western blazes for two decades.
“Most of them have several years experience,” said Jackson. “They’ve been in all types of terrain and vegetative plates out there. This wasn’t too much different from what they’ve had in the past, other than it was the driest anyone can remember.”
The work is grueling under extreme heat and weighted down in protective clothing and firefighting equipment.
“It was 14 to 16 hours just about every day,” Jackson said. “Working in the heat and dry conditions out there for that long is pretty strenuous.”
Jackson said West Virginia teams normally get very high marks from supervisors in the Midwest for their efforts and willingness to pitch in.
“We’re happy to help those people as much as they can with whatever resources we have,” he said. “Whenever they’re in a situation like they are in now, they just need as much help as they can get.”
Depending on the needs, Jackson said it’s likely another West Virginia crew will be headed out west again to try and bring flames under control.