PA Wildland Fire Crew returns from fighting Idaho wildfires

The PA Wildland Fire Crew has returned to central Pennsylvania after having assisted in fighting a wildfire in Salmon, Idaho, since Aug. 5.

This morning, the crew met at Red Lion Hotel on 4751 Lindle Road in Harrisburg to demobilize, finalize any paperwork, and return equipment that had been borrowed. The crew has been out west helping out for two weeks straight, sending a 20 person group.

The PA Wildland Fire Crew has an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service, making it their job to respond to any wildfires across the country with resources available in Pennsylvania.

Chris Layaou has been with the wildfire crew since 2012, making this his tenth year as part of the team. He states that the fire that they were a part of fighting is up to 100,000 acres long, which is why the crew was sent to help out. It is the largest active wildfire in U.S., according to EastIdahoNews, and was caused by humans.

“While we were there the population of firefighters... the number of resources that were there, varied between 1,200 firefighters and other resources supporting the incident, about 1,500 individuals,” Layaou said.

Layaou added that typically there is a national planning level ranging from one to five that alerts the crew to the severity of the situation and whether a larger crew may be needed on assignment.

“We don’t get that request until it gets to about three, four being less resources available and five being they need a lot of help,” Layaou said. “Typically, that happens in July, August, and a little bit into September.”

This year, only four crews were sent out west, but typically around 12 crews are sent depending on the severity of the wildfire assignment.

Being a ten-year member, assignments like these are typical for Layaou but for first-time crew member Benjamin O’Connor, it was a new experience being out west.

“It was a lot of work... a lot of long hours... a lot of really good teamwork, team-building camaraderie and we got dirty,” O’Connor said.

O’Connor joined the team Aug. 5 to assist in Idaho and for the mission he was assigned to work on the pump, which meant his job was to deliver water to crews working around the mountain.

“I think the only thing that was new to me was sleeping in a tent for 14 days and the hours that we had to put in,” O’Connor said. “So the hours was the biggest shock I think, but I kind of adapted to that pretty quickly.”

Both crew members said the community response made them feel welcome in Idaho, which they said is an aspect of these assignments that doesn’t get mentioned enough.

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