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California firefighters are en route to Australia to help contain more than 130 fires raging across the country, the Associated Press reported Monday.
That crew of firefighters, based in Angeles National Forest, north of Los Angeles, will replace another group sent to help in December. Three firefighters have been killed so far battling the blazes, CNN reported. Firefighters from the U.S. are being dispatched to Australia by the Idaho-based National Interagency Fire Center, while federal workers from the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, most of them with experience managing fires, also have traveled to Australia to assist.
Australia and New Zealand have been sending firefighters to the United States for more than 15 years, most recently in August 2018, when 138 came to help battle fires in Northern California and the Northwest. The last time U.S. firefighters worked in Australia was 2010, according to AP
Scott Morrison, Australia’s prime minister, recently announced a $1.39 billion fund to help rebuild communities hit by the fires. CALMatters reported last year that like California, wildfires there rage for much of the year in 80% of the country, which is plagued by brutal heat and withering drought.
At least 24 people have been killed in the fires so far, which have also killed 480 million animals in New South Wales and destroyed more than 380 homes. There are 2,700 firefighters working to contain the blazes as they have burned millions of acres since the brushfire season began last August.
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