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Two residents off to help fight massive blaze
| Friday, Jan 19 2007 11:20 PM
Last Updated: Friday, Jan 19 2007 11:25 PM
Two Kern County residents are among more than 100 U.S. personnel traveling to Australia to battle a massive fire burning east and northwest of Melbourne.
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The Australian State of Victoria's Department of Sustainability and Environment asked the United States for 107 federal fire personnel to assist with brush fires, according to a news release. There are 2.6 million acres burning.
Dan Kleinman, a former division chief on the Sequoia National Forest and an operations section chief in a National Incident Management organization, is taking a bus to Los Angeles this morning to catch a flight to Australia. He said there had been talk of possibly sending people to Australia since before Christmas.
"It's quite a large incident, even for them," Kleinman said.
As an operations section chief, Kleinman will be responsible for planning and supervising perimeter control and fire suppression. He will be working with both U.S. and Australian firefighters in 100-degree heat in his first international firefighting incident.
Fire conditions in Australia are extreme because of an extended drought, hot temperatures and relative humidity in single digits, the news release said.
"It should be fun," Kleinman said.
Chris Ryan, a Bureau of Land Management-Bakersfield District employee, will serve as a resource unit leader in the operation. He and Kleinman are expected to be gone for 33 days.
Canada and New Zealand are also providing assistance to Australia.
U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Margie Clack said fire managers from New Zealand and Australia have assisted in several California fires since 2000, most recently on the Bar Complex wildland fire in Northern California last year.