With parts of the western United States ablaze, the Energy and Environment Cabinet’s Kentucky Division of Forestry has dispatched aid in the form of firefighters and equipment to five western states.
Kentucky firefighters are fighting fires in Yosemite Park in California. Devestating fires are burning there and in other areas across Colorado, Nevada and Utah. The Goose Creek fire that spans northern Nevada and Utah has scorched 123,000 acres so far, while a fire in Carr, California has burned 132,000 acres.
“They’re right in the areas where fire has been and they’re in a very close proximity to the active fire,” Kentucky Fire Management Chief Brandon Howard told WAVE 3 News in Louisville yesterday.
To see an interactive map of where the fires are in the western states, you can go to the International Association of Fire Chiefs Wildfire Status Dashboard here to see where the fires are, how big they are and what percentage they are currently contained.
Kentucky’s firefighters are in California for at least two weeks. The firefighters work 16 hours a day, and sleep in tents in difficult conditions. Forty-nine firefighters are fighting fires in five western states.
Kentucky had some moderate fire activity in the spring, and rain has been plentiful this summer, allowing the Division of Forestry to send aid to the west.
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