COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) – Nearly 100 firefighters from across Texas are heading to California to help battle raging wildfires.
Ferguson wildfire containment near Yosemite National Park, Photo Date: 7/22/2018
The Texas A&M Forest Service on Tuesday announced personnel from more than two dozen fire departments are flying to California or taking part in a convoy with at least 25 fire engines. Texas firefighters are expected to report for duty Thursday.
Twin fires in Northern California have scorched an area nearly the size of Los Angeles.
The deployment is an activation of the Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System even as the state is in its own wildfires season. Texas A&M Forest Service director Tom Boggus says it’s “about neighbors helping neighbors.”
Fire departments from Abilene, Austin, College Station, Dallas, Galveston, Lubbock and Wichita Falls are among those dispatching personnel to California.
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