Colorado Springs firefighters battle flames across the country

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - Our fire crews are on the front lines of wildfires spreading in Colorado and across the country.

Six firefighters from the Colorado Springs Fire Department (CSFD) are away from home to help battle wildfires. 

One is burning about 40 miles west of Durango, another in Idaho, and seven others in Oregon that are ranging between 20 and 3,000 acres.

In southwest Colorado, parts of the Mesa Verde National Park are up in flames due to lightening strikes.

Fire crews arrived this afternoon to help with containment.

"What happens when we deploy out is that we gain knowledge and we learn about not only incident operations, but also the local fire behavior in that area. And we see how other departments operate. If something we hadn't thought of or hadn't heard about before, we can bring that knowledge back here,” Lt. Will Rogers said.

The mix of hotter and drier weather in Oregon and Idaho is igniting smaller fires to spread thousands of acres.

Our fire crews are there as well, managing fire lines, creating plans to ultimately eliminate the fire as well adapting new techniques to bring back home.

Lt. Rogers tells KRDO13 that he's happy to be able to send our own to help when areas have depleted resources. 

The six guys deployed will be gone for up 2 weeks battling those flames.

The department is grateful to send our own to help and learn outside of Southern Colorado.