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WASHINGTON STATE — Over 140 Washington firefighters are on the road to Southern California. Teams of firefighters left Washington Wednesday afternoon after answering the call for help to fight the fierce wildfires raging in the Los Angeles area.

Thousands of firefighters were battling at least four separate and significant fires, from the Pacific Coast inland to Pasadena on Wednesday. At least five people are dead and thousands have fled their burning homes, according to officials. More than a thousand homes are destroyed as of Wednesday evening.

The Washington Department of Natural Resources confirmed Wednesday it’s sending personnel and equipment to assist the U.S. Forest Service in California. In an email, a DNR spokesperson said it was responding to a request from the U.S. Forest Service and would send two strike teams – comprised of 10 engines and some 35 personnel members to the Angeles National Forest area to assist with fire suppression.

In a regional meeting, including the Washington Emergency Management Division, Wednesday afternoon, officials were deciding how many crews and which resources from area fire departments would be going to the Los Angeles area. Just before 6 p.m. Wednesday, Gov. Jay Inslee said the EMD was “working with fire departments across the state to coordinate nine task forces made up of 45 engines, 11 trucks and 146 personnel” to send to Southern California.

By late Wednesday afternoon, Eastside Fire and Rescue said it was working on a “manifest” and planned to send at least two commanders and eight wildland firefighters.

A short time later, wildland firefighters from Tulalip Bay Fire Department and Snohomish Regional Fire and Rescue announced some of their wildland firefighters were already on the road and headed to Southern California.

“This afternoon, Snohomish Regional Fire & Rescue deployed Engine 82A with four firefighters, including a wildland strike team leaders to assist with the fires in California,” SRF&R said in a social media post Wednesday. “We wish them a safe and successful mission as they work to protect lives and property!”

Washington State Department of Natural Resources spokesperson Thomas Kyle-Milward told KOMO News California officials have requested 50 task forces or about 250 structural engines from federal emergency management.

Crews from Eastside Fire & Rescue are used to answering the call for help outside their usual service areas. Its Emergency Management Division deals with all phases of disaster management, from fighting wildfires to training and planning for disasters.

EF&R also has hazardous materials, technical rescue, and wildland firefighting teams. EF&R and WADNR also maintain a brush truck equipped with specialized tools and hoses. The agency also has a special four-wheel drive engine that can be used in remote areas.

Washington Task Force One’s Program Manager William Palmer said it’s standing by at the ready if needed.

“I can sense that we may have to go, so we’re starting just some preparatory efforts In equipment vehicles and things like that, Palmer said. “We’re in a constant state of readiness, but we ramp that up a little bit as things start to get ready.”

Washington Task Force One is one of 28 FEMA urban search and rescue teams in the U.S., said Palmer. California has eight teams.

“We want to go do stuff. I mean, that’s our reason for being on the team. To be able to go and do, and we do at the request of the local agencies. We are a supporting effort.”

The team is comprised of more than 200 firefighters and first responders from King and Pierce counties, as well as the Seattle Fire Department. They typically get called in after a fire is contained and are specialized in human remains detection.

They recently responded to Hurricanes Helene and Milton and did rescue and recovery work after the deadly Maui Fires in August 2023.

“This is what we did in Maui. We would do a layering operation so as these buildings burn and collapse. We would have to sift all that out layer and layer and layer at a time,” Palmer said.

If the team gets the call, they arrive self-contained, bringing with them everything they need from a satellite system for communications to tents for shelter, food, and heavy equipment. All of it is kept in a specific section of their warehouse, already packaged and on pallets ready to be quickly loaded into one of their trucks.

Palmer said if they get the call from Southern California, they have to be ready to launch in four hours.