BOISE - About 140 firefighters from Australia and New Zealand arrived at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise Sunday afternoon.
The firefighters were brought in to assist with fires burning across the Northwest and Northern California.
"The firefighting is similar, there are just some different methods and some different ways in which people communicate about that," said Peter McKechnie, national liaison for firefighters from Australia and New Zealand.
McKechnie says one major difference they face when coming to the United States is the type of landscape the fires are burning in.
"The trees are a little different," McKechnie said. "We have a lot of eucalyptus trees and there's a lot of conifers in the states."
Before deploying to their assigned fires in Redding, California and Redmond, Oregon, they are receiving updates, getting outfitted with protective equipment and doing some training on fire shelters.
The firefighters are expected to be in the U.S. for up to 42 days, but that could change if necessary.
"It is a long time to be away from home and families but at the same time the honor, I suppose, of being able to come to another country halfway across the world and help some communities, at the end of the day that's why firefighters do what they do," McKechnie said.
NIFC coordinates resources for all wildfire operations throughout the U.S.
"When NIFC requests support they outline to Australia and New Zealand was sort of resources are required and we went through how many of each we could supply," McKechnie said.
The crews from Australia and New Zealand were brought in because of their experience in battling fires internationally. Officials said those two countries have been key partners with the U.S. fire community for decades.
"Over the last 20 years we've seen a number of deployments from Australia, New Zealand to America and from America to Australia when we've had bad fire seasons," McKechnie said. "Firefighting is just another thing we can do together to help out our people."
All firefighters will be deployed Monday afternoon. One-third of the group will be deployed to Redding, California and the rest will go to Redmond, Oregon.