The Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection sent a 20-person fire crew on Tuesday morning to northern California to fight the wildfires that have led to the evacuation of more than 13,000 people.
The Connecticut crew consists of 10 DEEP staff members and 10 local firefighters. They flew out of the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport in New Hampshire to northern California.
California is fighting a number of wildfires as drought-starved vegetation catches ablaze, but the largest is the Rocky Fire that has more than 60,000 acres on fire.
The last time a Connecticut state fire crew was deployed out of state was also to California in August 2014, to the 32,000-acre Eiler Fire near Burney.
The move is part of the reciprocal aid program operated by the U.S. Forest Service, where states can send personnel to help each other with fire emergencies and other natural disasters.
