With wildfires raging out west, Delaware has already sent help to fight them.
Wildland Fire Supervisor Sam Topper is in Oregon as a task force leader, working on a fire that is only 14% contained.
Kyle Hoyd is Delaware’s State Forester for the Department of Agriculture Forest Service. He explains Topper’s duties in Oregon.
"To ensure that the tasks are being completed by the crews in a safe and logical manner in terms of how planned and what they're doing because they're developing the containment lines," said Hoyd.
Topper in an email said there’s also currently a dispatcher in Colorado and a Type 6 engine in Oregon.
That Type 6 engine - the Wildland Fire Engine - is known as a brush truck in Delaware. It’s working on a 36,000-acre fire in Oregon that’s at a 15% containment level.
A three-person crew will be rotated for that truck, which will stay there to provide critical pump resources.
"Given our skill level that we put on our trucks generally, or what we always hope to have as far as having a very dynamic crew for that truck, we also have fallers on that. So we actually have certified faller one's that go with that truck and can mitigate hazards such as large trees the big Douglas Firs you see out west that might be on fire that might be acting as candlesticks throwing embers across the line," said Hoyd.
That truck provides the work of a pump crew, a hand crew and a faller team.
Hoyd notes when Topper returns to Delaware next week he will serve as crew boss for a 20-person hand crew to most likely to deploy to Oregon, Washington or California.
