Fire crews from Colorado travel to help battle wildfires in other western states

Firefighting crews from Colorado are helping out in the battles against wildfires outside of the state, as they have done all summer.

Four firefighters from South Metro Fire Rescue in the Denver metro area recently traveled to Idaho to help out in the battle against the Snag Fire in the western part of that state. As of Sunday that fire had burned more than 33,000 acres and was actively expanding. 

A group of firefighters from Poudre Fire Authority are heading for California this week. One of the many wildfires there that is currently burning is the Bridge Fire in Angeles National Forest.

There have also been teams from PFA fighting wildfires recently in Oregon. Those crews did doing work like trying to extinguish large trees that had caught fire and using chainsaws to take down damaged trees.

"Deployments like these allow our members on the Wildland Team to gain valuable experience, allow for advancement in their wildland qualifications, and assist communities in need of assistance at the national scale," Poudre Fire Authority officials wrote in a social media post. "This helps assure that we have trained and qualified firefighters for fires that occur locally too."

Earlier this summer the Alexander Mountain Fire in Northern Colorado burned thousands of acres and destroyed dozens of homes. It was of several wildfires on Colorado's Front Range that forced extended evacuation orders. Since then, fire activity has settled down significantly in the area.