Utah Division of Emergency Management Press Release
In response to a call for help, 35 firefighters from various Utah fire agencies deployed to California on Saturday to support firefighting efforts there. The firefighters staged and deployed from the Maverick Center on Saturday morning.
They will deploy for about 16 days under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC), a system of state-to-state mutual aid coordinated through state emergency management agencies. California has confirmed and accepted Utah’s EMAC offer.
This EMAC deployment includes firefighters from Draper, Lone Peak, Orem, Park City, Pleasant Grove, Provo, Unified Fire Authority and West Valley City Fire Departments. Once the teams arrived in California, they received their field assignments.
COVID-19 pandemic precautions will be taken to ensure the health and safety of both the firefighters deploying and those with which they will serve. A representative from the Utah Department of Health was at the Maverick Center to review COVID-19 safety measures and to take the temperature of each firefighter before departing.
Utah stands ready, willing, and able to help a state in need, and EMAC is a great system for doing that.