The U.S. is in the midst of one of its worst fire seasons on record with some 11,600 square miles scorched so far. It's only the sixth-worst going back to 1960
As the state's wildfires burned into the record books Monday exceeding 400 square miles, calls for help were answered from far and near.
Fire managers from New Zealand and Australia arrived to contribute to a ground campaign led by firefighters from across the West and augmented by U.S. soldiers and for the first time, untrained civilian volunteers from the 4,000 volunteers.
Since 1987, active duty military personnel have been mobilized to serve as wildland firefighters a total of 35 times. The last time was in 2006.