Department of Public Safety Commissioner Clyde K. Norita said the CNMI regularly joins the national firefighting team.
“We are sending a crew of hotshots from the CNMI to join the ‘Hotshots’ crew from Guam, the American Samoa and Hawaii,” Norita said.
He said they got an activation call on Friday to send a crew to California that will be attached to the national fire fighting team. (See story on page 15)
He added that due to the limited manpower in the CNMI, the activation this year was for citizen volunteers.
“This means that the day to day operations of the firefighters in the CNMI won’t be affected,” Norita said.
“Forest fires on the mainland are really big, and our volunteers will be deployed to where they will be needed at,” he said.
Firefighter II Anthony Babauta, the Hotshots program manager, said the fire volunteers underwent an intensive training for one week in April.
“They had a taste of putting out live fires without water during the live-fire training on island,” Babauta said.
He said the volunteers completed and passed all the training requirements and will be paid during their deployment.
“We will be there for 30 days, and in case there is a vacancy in Hotshot posts and the volunteers are willing to stay and work for the season until December, they can do so,” Babauta said.
He added that Firefighter II Clinton Ngiraked will assist him supervise the CNMI group.
“The volunteers from Saipan will be working as frontliners with the hotshots in California,” Babauta said.
He said there were 32 volunteers who joined the training but only 18 are qualified for deployment.
“Some of the volunteers don’t have passports yet, so we cannot send them to the U.S.,” Babauta said.
He added that the last time CNMI sent volunteers to help fight forest fires on the mainland was in 2004 when 14 local volunteers were deployed.
Volunteer firefighter Anthony S. Manibusan said that the group is well prepared to fight actual fires.
“The training was pretty intense. Dealing with fire is a life and death situation, and the boys have to be competent and responsible,” Manibusan said.
“I know that they are ready to go, and I believe they are very competent to face the actual situation,” he added.
President Bush has issued an emergency declaration for California and ordered federal agencies to assist the state’s firefighters.
