Three strike teams of firefighters will leave this region early tomorrow morning, Oct. 14, for California to bolster the efforts to contain the wildfires in that state’s wine country.

One team is made up of the fire engines normally seen in fire stations, and another team of wildfire apparatus will meet at the Maytown rest area, 13 miles south of Olympia on Interstate 5, at 5 a.m. They will leave the staging area at 6 a.m. to begin the 750-mile trip to California.

There will be four fire apparatus per strike team for a total of 50 firefighters and support personnel. The teams plan on being deployed for 18 days, which includes three to four days of travel.

The three teams are comprised of crews from many Puget Sound region fire departments, including: Seattle, Vashon Island, Valley RFA, Bothell, Shoreline, Eastside, Snohomish County, as well as Seattle Public Utilities.

Other teams from the state may also be preparing to depart for California as well that are not part of these strike teams.

All the firefighters being deployed are “red card” certified, meaning that they have been trained in wildland firefighting, which is very different than traditional structural firefighting.