(Fremont County, WY) – The Fremont County Fire Protection District has shared that they have sent a local crew to Southern California to assist with the wildfires in L.A. County.
“FCFPD sent out a Type 3 Wildland Engine Crew today, headed to Southern California to assist with fires in that area,” a message posted on the FCFPD Facebook page states. “Stay safe fellas!” (Type 3 engines are used to fight fires in rough terrain and/or remote areas.)
A recent update on the California fires shared by the L.A. Times informs that two individuals have been reported deceased and that more than 1,000 homes, businesses, and buildings have already been burned in the fire.
The L.A. Times article also reports that firefighters were dealing with multiple fires throughout the night while winds gusting “up to 100 mph” raged on.
The three fires include the Palisades Fire (more than 11,000 acres), the Eaton Fire (more than 10,000 acres), and the Hurst Fire (around 700 acres).
FCFPD Chief Ron Wempen shared with County 10 they were ready to answer the call to assist with the wildfires, and explained how that process works in terms of helping with out-of-state fires.
“We are an agency who works within and with the Wyoming State Forestry Division in the state of Wyoming,” Chief Wempen shared, and explained that they “work cooperatively” between the states and federal agencies when it comes time to provide available resources, be they personnel or equipment.
“So even like this summer when we had the big fires here in Fremont County, at that time, help came in all over the world,” Chief Wempen added. “We had folks from Montana, management teams came in, we had a team from California that came.”
“We are signed together between being a local county governmental agency with the state, and the states must sign together with the US Forest Service or the other federal agencies, BLM, Bureau of Indian Affairs, whoever it might be, when we have the need, when these things like that happen, under those agreements we can reach out and request help than from each other.”
Those requests started last night into this morning Chief Wempen went on to share, which came from the Cody dispatch center.
“Across the U.S., we have a series of federal interagency dispatch centers, and the one that we work with for that dispatch center is out of Cody. That interagency dispatch center then receives these national (and local) requests for resources of whatever kind it might be.”
Chief Wempen said the crew sent out today is “all local firefighters to Fremont County Fire District,” and that they were glad to answer the call.
“We’re happy to be able to do that. They helped us in our time of need, so we’re going to turn around to help them.”