Army will send 200 soldiers to fight wildfires as blazes burn in 11 western states

Engineer units at the National Guard level get tapped for fire fighting duties on a regular basis, although I don't know of any formal training on the military side. The Forest Service provided training for the non equipment operators, just like for their own people. Generally, they wanted our equipment operators, a D7 can cut a fire break up the side of a damn steep hill quicker than any Hotshot crew.

CPT Lawrence Cable - They Handed Me a Shovel and said "You see that Fire Line (Cleared Area) Make it Wider" all the way up the side of a Mountain.

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel - Nice thing about being an Army Engineer is that we bring our own shovels and they generate about 200 HP. The 12B's were tasked to do manual clearing in areas that we couldn't access with the heavy equipment. We never fought forest fires out West while I was still Active Reserve, just in Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee. The trees don't explode into flames around here.