Wesley McKinney is a county ranger for the Arkansas Forestry Commission. Earlier this month, McKinney was in northern California near the Mendocino National Forest fighting off fires.
“When we aren’t fighting fires in Arkansas, we go out and lend a helping hand to other states that are in need,” Conway County Ranger Wesley McKinney said. For 21 days, McKinney left his wife and 6-year-old son to help fight fires Northwest of Sacramento.
“Some days we wouldn’t see the sun, we’d go two days where we wouldn’t see the sun because of the smoke,” McKinney said.
McKinney has been working fires for 16 hours every day with little rest. He said resources are down because of the number of fires burning in the west.
“We are doing it with 20% of what we need to fight these fires,” McKinney said.