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Arizona firefighters head to California to battle record wildfires

Posted at 6:45 PM, Aug 08, 2018
and last updated 2018-08-08 21:45:41-04

About 300 firefighters from Arizona are spending a lot of time in California as the state battles 17 wildfires, one of them the largest in state history.

Our state's firefighters are helping 14,000 other firefighters get a handle on the destructive blazes, and California isn't the only state asking us for help.

MAP: See where wildfires are burning across Arizona

An additional 100 Arizona firefighters are scattered across six different states. Now, Texas is asking for assistance as well.

"We're kind of going on a day-to-day basis," said Tiffany Davila with the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management. "We're looking at what those needs are for those states and filling them based on what we can do from the state of Arizona."

Davila says Arizona has access to about 3,000 firefighters statewide. Crews are normally on a 14- to 21-day assignment. About 75 pieces of firefighting equipment from Arizona are also in other states.