TACOMA, Wash. — 250 soldiers from Joint Base Lewis-McChord have mobilized to fight fires in Boise, Idaho.
On August 17, the National Interagency Fire Center announced the arrival of 250 active-duty soldiers of the 14th Brigade Engineer Battalion, joined by soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment based at JBLM for firefighting missions.
The soldiers will be equipped with protective equipment used to fight fires and will receive advanced training from veteran firefighting crews.
The soldiers will be in 10 groups of 20 and will fight fires alongside initial attack hand crews and fireline leadership at the Boise and Payette National Forests.
For 30 days, the soldiers will be part of the National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group (NMAC) working in southwest Idaho.
The mobilization is possible because of a 1975 interagency agreement between the Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior.
According to the National Interagency Fire Center, 64 large wildfires have burned over 2.2 million acres nationwide.
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