3000-plus volunteer to help fight Wash. wildfires

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has sent more firefighters to aid wildfire battles around the country.

Seven of the Michigan firefighters assisting are from DNR offices in the Upper Peninsula, and the remaining are from lower Michigan.

Public Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark says his agency appreciates the support, but he wants the fire officers on scene to be able to stay focused on actually fighting fires.

Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) put out the call as a flurry of wildfires raged unchecked in the Pacific Northwest, placing a severe strain on state resources.

Volunteers will get paid for their time, a DNR spokesperson said, though pay rates were not available, Saturday. “We’ve had people come in with everything from a backhoe or a water tender or an old fashioned fire truck to people with nothing but boots and a strong back, as they say.”

The move comes as the Washington fires were declared a federal emergency. These include emergency power generation resources, properly functioning equipment, health and safety inspections and more.

The order applies to the counties of Asotin, Chelan, Douglas, Ferry, Klickitat, Okanogan, Pend Orielle, Skamania, Spokane, Stevens, and Yakima.

This set of fires is larger than the cities of Seattle and Tacoma combined, according to King 5 News.

The three firefighters who died were employees of the Forest Service based in the area and had been deployed to a fire near Twisp, on the eastern, more-arid side of the Cascade Mountains.

One of the injured, Daniel Lyon, 25, of Puyallup, Wash., was in critical condition at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, hospital officials said late Thursday. The status of the fourth firefighter was unclear.

Since the fire season went into overdrive, Washington civilians have hungered to offer any firefighting labor they could.