9/8/2017Active Duty Military Personnel Assigned to Umpqua North Complex

Who:  Soldiers with Task Force SPEARHEAD, 1-2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 7^th Infantry Division at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) in Washington.

What:  200 active military soldiers, will be working with experienced fire leaders on the Umpqua North Complex of fires burning in the Umpqua National Forest.

Where/when:  Field training for the soldiers will be conducted along the Highway 138 East corridor over the next two days.

Why:  Due to more than 140 large wildfires currently burning on approximately 1.9 million acres in California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming with nearly 26,000 firefighters plus support personnel working on them.

Contact:  Opportunities for interviews will be available. Contact Public Information Officer Sean Collins at (661) 241-0507 to make arrangements.

            The soldiers have been outfitted with wildland fire Personal Protective Equipment and all of the gear they will need to serve as wildland firefighters. Their training with wildland fire agency personnel began earlier this week at JBLM in classrooms where they learned about a variety of topics related to wildfire suppression including fire terminology, fire behavior, and fireline safety. Once their training is complete they will be integrated into the suppression operations being managed by California Interagency Incident Management Team 4.           

            More than ten twenty-person hand crews had been requested by the California Team 4 but due to the shortage of resources these requests were unable to be filled. The National Preparedness level is currently at 5, the highest level, indicating a high level of wildfire activity and a high level of commitment of wildfire suppression resources. The National Multi-Agency coordinating Group at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise requested the Department of Defense to provide 200 active duty military personnel to assist with firefighting effort. 

            The U.S. military has been a key partner in wildland firefighting for over a century, providing personnel to serve as wildland firefighters and aircraft. Since 1987, active duty military personnel have been mobilized to serve as wildland firefighters a total of 36 times. The last time that active duty military personnel were mobilized to serve as wildland firefighters was in August 2015 when 200 soldiers from the 17^th Field Artillery Brigade based out of JBLM were mobilized to work on wildfires in Washington for 30 days. 

            The latest Umpqua North Complex Information can be found at: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5505/