Delaware wildfire crew to return on Friday

Delaware’s wildland fire crew is apparently returning to the First State after successfully battling wildfires in Colorado and Wyoming.

Delaware Forest Service officials say they dispatched the firefighters to Colorado on July 25, and their first assignment was helping Colorado’s Bureau of Land Management on the 492-acre Milk Fire near Craig, Colorado.

Next, they were apparently sent by the Rocky Mountain Geographic Area Coordination Center to the 1,287-acre Tokewanna Fire near Mountain View, Wyoming.

Finally, on August 4, DFS officials say they were dispatched to the 12,276-acre Whit Fire, located east of Yellowstone National Park near Cody, Wyoming. On the Whit Fire, Delaware’s team worked with more than 600 personnel as they constructed hand line, patrolled fire lines, and protected structures.

As of August 10, the fire reportedly was at 85 percent containment.

Delaware has apparently been dispatching a crew almost every year since 1998.

Delaware Forest Service officials say the firefighters are a mix of public agency employees, recruits from volunteer fire companies, and private citizens with a keen interest in fighting wildfires and this year, four are from the Delaware Forest Service, two from DNREC Division of State Parks, one from U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s Prime Hook Wildlife Area, and one from New Castle County. Six crew members are”rookies”, or rather marking their first assignment on a wildfire crew.