Thirteen members of the Connecticut Interstate Fire Crew (CIFC) have been sent to fight multiple uncontained fires in Minnesota.
The crews will be deployed for 16-18 days as a part of a larger, 33-person interagency to fight wildfires in Arizona, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana and Oregon.
Residents in Connecticut and other neighboring New England states have been experiencing bad air quality caused by the smoke from these wildfires, with the Dept. of Energy and Environmental Protection issuing an alert for parts of Connecticut on Tuesday.
Currently, there are a total of 66 uncontained fires in several states, encompassing more than 1.7 million acres and 21,544 personnel working to put them out, according to the National Interagency Coordination Center.
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CIFC is an agency of staff members who have gone through rigorous training, physical work capacity testing and refresher training to be certified to fight forest or wildfires.
The Connecticut crew will spend their time working in the Superior National Forest, assisting with the initial fires, relieving other crews and preventing the fire from spreading.
