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Wayne Twp. firefighter heads to Oregon to help with blaze and provide public information

Mike Pruitt traveling to west coast
Posted at 2:55 PM, Aug 09, 2018
and last updated 2018-08-09 14:55:31-04

INDIANAPOLIS -- Wayne Township firefighter and public information officer Mike Pruitt is headed to Oregon to help emergency crews with the Taylor Creek and Klondike fires.

Pruitt will join a Pacific Northwest Incident Management team as a public information officer.

“There’s probably no better place to experience and work large-scale emergency operations than on these fires,” said Pruitt in a Facebook post.

According to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, ten people from Indiana are out fighting fires right now.

“Four are at the Sugar Pine fire in Oregon, two are at the Klondike fire in Oregon, one is at Ferguson fire in Calif., one is at Plateau fire in Colorado, and one is at Rattlesnake fire in Idaho,” said DNR spokesperson Marty Benson in an email to RTV6.

Pruitt is traveling to Oregon.

Benson said another interagency crew of 20 people from Indiana came home last night.

“This crew worked for a week at the Hendrix fire in Oregon and then at the Wrong Creek fire in Washington state,” said Benson. “Crew members were from DNR, Hoosier National Forest, The Nature Conservancy and Dunes National Lakeshore. Assignments are 14 days plus travel to and from incident, which adds 2-4 days.” 

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