Nearly two-dozen Delaware firefighters are heading to Alaska this weekend to help battle a wildfire.
20 wildland firefighters trained by Delaware Forest Service are leaving from Blackbird State Forest in Smyrna Friday afternoon. They’ve been assigned to assist containing a blaze about 40 miles east of Fairbanks, Alaska. Four members of the Forest Service staff will lead the crew.
The wildfire currently covers nearly 32 thousand acres and threatens a couple of nearby communities. Officials coordinating efforts to fight the fire rate its growth potential “extreme.”
The crew from the First State is expected to join the 253 firefighters currently battling the blaze late Saturday and spend the next two weeks fighting that Alaska wildfire.
Earlier this year, WDDE's Morning Edition host Susan Geary joined a group local firefighters training for assignments like this one. You can read or listen to her story here.
