A Minnesota engine crew heads west on Friday through another unique wildland fire partnership. This summer will be the fourth year that the Pintler Ranger District in Phillipsburg, Montana has hosted a Minnesota DNR engine crew for severity staffing.
This Minnesota crew will boost the local wildland fire staffing for initial attack response when their needs are greatest, usually late July through mid-September. The crew of six firefighters arrive with the engine and a support vehicle (chase truck). They will staff for 14 days and then swap vehicles with an incoming crew. The engine and chase truck stay in Montana, the first crew heads home and the incoming crew takes over for the next 14 days, This repeats for about two months, when firefighting needs in Montana decrease and our needs in Minnesota increase.
Over the years of helping in southwestern Montana, the crews have responded to many initial attacks and assisted on several larger local fires with assigned Incident Management Teams. An advantage to this type of relationship is many of our firefighters have now worked in this area and gained “local knowledge” that only comes after working in a location for a while. This has earned the trust of our host and removed some of the unknowns that always come with traveling across the country to work on fires in a new location. Safe travels to our Minnesota engine crews.
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