COLUMBIA - Two Boone County Fire Protection District firefighters were dispatched to help battle wildfires in California as part of the Missouri Iowa Coordination Center, Division Chief Gale Blomenkamp said. One firefighter is located 20 miles west of Quincy, Calif., and the other is located at Klamath National Forrest where a 1,000-acre fire has been burning, Blomenkamp said. The district is not releasing the names of the firefighters, Blomenkamp said.
Firefighters that travel to these locations are given wildland fire training, where they learn about weather, topography, wildfire behavior and how fire travels in addition to their regular training, Blomenkamp said.
Three firefighters were sent to Northern California in Redding, Calif., in early July and have already returned home. Colt Doman left July 5 and was assigned to the fight fires in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. At that time, the fire covered 30,303 acres and was only 50 percent contained.
Wes Mahoney and Nathan Bias left July 11 where they were assigned to fight one of the 19 fires that were burning at that time.
Two other firefighters are scheduled to leave with another coordination center group, but as of noon today no destination has been released..