Delaware have deployed firefighting crews to numerous states, including: Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, California, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, and Washington.

DOVER (DE): The Delaware Forest Service is sending its wildfire crew to New Mexico as a steep increase in lightning-caused fires has pushed the National Preparedness Level to 5 on a 5-point scale, its highest level.

A group of 21 firefighters met Thursday morning at the Blackbird State Forrest in Smyrna around 6:00 a.m. The firefighters have been trained in Wildland Fire fighting and may stay in New Mexico for several weeks.

Critical fire weather continues throughout the West and according to the National Interagency Fire Center, the majority of the fire activity remains in Arizona and California, where over 1.5 million acres have burned. So far this year, more than 38,767 fires have burned 3.7 million acres.

Thanks to a training program sponsored by the Delaware Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service, citizens from across the First State can qualify to serve on national fire crews.

Wet/dry thunderstorms in E/Co today; lightning activity in the RMA for the past 24 hours showed 10,714 strikes. Strikes blanketed CO, S/WY & E/KS. Western SD saw strikes across the western part of the state w/some in central SD. pic.twitter.com/6pqenkCKFn

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— RMACC (@RMACCinfo) August 30, 2020

And since 1996, the Delaware Forest Service has trained more than 600 volunteer firefighters, and now every fire season deploys 20-person crews for out-of-state wildfire assignments.

The National Interagency Fire Center calls on Delaware at least twice a year to help with fires in the United States. The crew will typically work on an out-of-state wildfire for two weeks.

Delaware have deployed firefighting crews to numerous states, including: Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, California, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, and Washington.