SMYRNA, Del. (July 31, 2023) – The Delaware Forest Service mobilized a 3-person wildland fire engine crew from Blackbird State Forest on July 28th for a fire assignment to Wawona, California. Working with the Yosemite National Park’s Emergency Communication Center and various agencies from all over the country, the crew will be working on patrolling and isolating new fire starts due to human activity and lightning strikes. The predicted fire danger for the area is extreme/high for the next 7 days with an active 841-acre fire currently burning in Yosemite National Park, which is creating closures in the area. This assignment will be physically demanding for the crew and will require their 45 years of experience in logistical and operational roles in order to isolate these new starts so that they do not turn into larger fires.

Today, July 31, marks the first day of a fourteen-day assignment for the engine crew. The Delaware Forest Service will be looking to perform a crew swap around mid-August so that support can continue to be provided to the area. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, 64 large fires and complexes have burned 311,669 acres in 9 states. More than 11,500 wildland firefighters and support personnel are currently assigned to incidents across the country.

About Delaware Forest Service
The mission of the Delaware Department of Agriculture’s Delaware Forest Service (DFS) is to conserve, protect, and enhance Delaware forests and their resources for the public through education, management, demonstration, promotion, and providing technical services in a timely and efficient manner. DFS provides a wide range of services to help Delawareans manage and improve their forest resources. These services are divided into three categories: conservation, protection, and education. For more information, visit the website de.gov/forestry and connect with DFS on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

SMYRNA, Del. (August 9, 2022) –The Delaware Forest Service mobilized a 19-person wildfire crew from Blackbird State Forest to northern California today. The crew will travel cross-country to join other wildfire crews to battle blazes as the number of wildfires in the area continue to grow, sparked by hot, dry, and windy weather combined with an unstable atmosphere, creating lightning-caused fires.

According to the National Interagency Fire Center, 66 large fires and complexes have burned 1,694,298 acres in 14 states. More than 12,300 wildland firefighters and support personnel are currently assigned to incidents across the country.

Delaware has trained more than 600 firefighters since 1996 and battled wildfires in numerous states, including Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, California, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, and Washington. https://de.gov/wildfire.

For more information, contact Kyle Hoyd at kyle.hoyd@delaware.gov

More photos and videos are available at: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjA2pY6

 
SMYRNA, Del. (Sept. 17, 2020) — Delaware’s wildfire crew is returning to the First State after successfully battling blazes on a 14-day assignment in Arizona and California. Delaware’s 21-person team mobilized at Blackbird State Forest in Smyrna on August 28. On August 30 they were assigned to the Griffin Fire, a 61,821-acre blaze in Arizona’s Tonto National Forest in the U.S. Forest Service’s Southwest Region. They subsequently took on the Rockhouse Fire, a 19,506-acre blaze located on land managed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ San Carlos Agency, 22 miles southeast of San Carlos, AZ.

On September 9, they were transferred to the Southern California Geographic Area and assigned to the Valley Fire, which consumed 17,665 acres in the Cleveland National Forest, 19 miles northeast of Chula Vista, CA. Less than 40 percent contained when Delaware’s crew arrived, the Valley Fire is now over 90 percent contained and many evacuation orders and restrictions have been lifted. As a Type 2 Initial Attack crew (T2-IA), Delaware’s crew worked on Division Alpha, going direct on the fire line and cold trailing along its edge. The steep and rugged terrain was challenging and required the crew to be transported by helicopter to their division, as shown in the video below (click here for file download link). The crew is expected to arrive back at Blackbird State Forest in Smyrna by Friday afternoon, September 18.

Contact: Kyle Hoyd, Assistant State Forester, (302) 698-4548 or (302) 943-7869 (cell) or email: kyle.hoyd@delaware.gov.

Watch this video from Delaware’s wildfire crew on California’s Valley Fire: