Firefighters from Australia and New Zealand are helping battle wildfires across the Northwest as firefighting resources across the United States are stretched thin.RELATED | 'Time is of the essence': Officials push for more reso urces as Big Grass Fire grows in Owyhee CountyThe international crews are now working on fires burning in Oregon and Washington.We are here supporting the U.S. in time of crisis and when youve got significant fires, and youre stretched thin on resources, so were only happy to help and step up, said Sam Quigley, the International Liaison Officer representing the team of 74 Australians and New Zealanders. WATCH: Learn how international firefighters are lending a hand on fires burning in Oregon and Washington International firefighters help fill staffing gaps as Northwest wildfires burnQuigley said the countries have worked together for years during major wildfire events.Our fire training is very similar to the United States, and weve had a long arrangement of many years of transferring resources during times of crisis, Quigley said.As dozens of large wildfires continue burning across the Northwest, leadership positions and incident management teams remain in high demand. The international firefighters are helping fill those gaps.We made sure that we picked the right people to come to this deployment," Quigley said. "We wanted to bring our best, so youve got many of the best right on the fire grounds now.The 74 firefighters were divided and deployed to more than a dozen incidents across the region.We have deep skills in forest firefighting, Quigley said. Crews are there; this will be their first day, and they will hit the ground running because our systems are so similar.Longstanding international mutual aid agreements allow countries to support one another during major disasters like this.Many a years weve called upon assistance from our international friends U.S., Canada in particular have supported us in times of crisis in Australia, Quigley said.The international firefighters will be deployed in the United States through the end of August before returning home.This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been, in part, converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy. ...read more read less