The Delaware Forest Service sent a 20-person wildfire crew to Colorado’s Rocky Mountain region as a spate of uncontained large fires in the west have increased the demand for trained firefighters.
The National Fire Preparedness Level was increased to three on a five-point scale June 29, indicating that wildfire activity is occurring in multiple geographic areas and mobilization of resources through national agencies is moderate to heavy.
The crew mobilized July 3 at Blackbird State Forest in Smyrna and traveled to Denver from Philadelphia on July 4 for positioning in the Rocky Mountain area, which has reported five new fires and currently has six uncontained large fires. As of July 3, a total of 277 wildfire crews are deployed across all regions of the U.S., and wildfire activity is expected to increase.