It's the first assignment for the 2019 BLM Women's Fire Crew, according to KTUU-TV.
"To be able to come to Alaska for your first ever fire assignment is so incredible," crew boss Shelby Descamps told KTUU.
“I had fire experience last year with the State of Montana with the DNRC, and quite a bit of solid experience, so they were like, ‘Do you want to lead this crew?’ and I was like ‘Yeah, absolutely that's like the best of both worlds running chainsaws and doing fire with a bunch of awesome ladies,’” Deschamps said.
As more than 200 fires burn through mid-July in Alaska, an all women's fire crew is headed here to help out. It's the first assignment for the 2019 BLM Women's Fire Crew. MORE: https://t.co/OymhD1y2pe
— KTUU.com (@Ch2KTUU) July 22, 2019
The crew involves a partnership between the Bureau of Land Management in Wyoming and the Montana Conservation Corps.
The program to train women to fight wildland fires was started in 2016 by the BLM Wyoming and the Montana Conservation Corps.
Wildfires well above the Arctic Circle in Alaska--and in Greenland??https://t.co/ZpZZCNrkGz
— Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) July 18, 2019
Air quality plummets as wildfire smoke hits Alaska's most populous cities https://t.co/Uk4vvvDPy0 pic.twitter.com/jeNJeZ7WTZ
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) July 10, 2019
About 1,000 firefighters from Washington, Oregon sent to battle Alaska wildfires - KVEW https://t.co/kUL1Oq0tTo
— Michael Gollner (@gollnerfire) July 13, 2019
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