They are here when we need them, rushing to fires and emergency situations around the region.

For the members of the Eastside Fire and Rescue, occasionally, answering the call of duty takes them away from home.

Members of the department’s Wildland Fire team were recently deployed to Eastern Washington to help crews battle several fires during the busy and often dangerous fire season.

In case of large fires across the state, such as the one currently burning near Omak, in the Okanagan Valley, when local crews are overburdened, firefighting teams around Washington are notified.

For Rick Scriven, one of the leaders of the EFR wildland team, this means being ready at any time to hop in the truck and drive to a distant location.

“When a fire goes beyond the local scope, then they call it in,” said Scriven.

When the call comes in, as it did two weeks ago, members of the team have two hours to get to the station, be packed and ready to get out of the door.

After heading out, the team meets up with a strike team of other local firefighters and heads to the fire’s location.

The recent call for EFR originally sent the team to Ephrata, but on arrival they were re-routed to Mabton, where Scriven said they basically set up camp in someone’s front yard.

“There were so many little fires going on at once they were way overwhelmed,” said Scriven of arriving in Mabton.

It was so chaotic no one had gotten the chance to set up a base camp, nor were any officials around for the team to report in. Once things were sorted out Scriven said the team helped with the initial attack of the fire, battling the 6,000 acre blaze on the front lines, helping to secure homes.

Crews from all over the state respond during these types of calls, and in the cases of big, complex fires, out of state assistance may be needed. Scriven said while there are a lot of teams locally which will go to fires across the state, EFR probably has one of the most proactive teams.

The local team was formed in 1991 to provide extra skill and safety to wildland fire and structure protection.

In 1994 massive fires engulfed the towns of Chelan and Entiat in North Central Washington, and responders from EFR and across the state battled to save the towns, one of the first times a major state mobilization was used.

Scriven said about 20 percent of the local team is really active on responding to state “mobs.”

Being on the EFR Wildland team doesn’t mean anyone is required to respond during state mobilizations, but many do because they can.

At the beginning of every fire season the team does the necessary training and makes sure their fire requirements are up to speed so they can be prepared during any events, because, as Scriven said, in a wildland fire anything can happen.

“A wildland fire can change at any time,” he said. This year the team’s message was “Look up, look down, look all around” as a reminder to be aware of all surroundings, like tree hazards.

Despite the recent fire activity, Scriven said it’s actually been a slow fire summer.

“It’s actually been slow this summer for mobilization,” said Scriven, despite the fact that a 30,000 acre fire was burning in Hanford and another 8,000 acre fire was running through the area near Omak.

“It’s been busy here for brush fires on this side,” he said, adding that while people seem to be more aware of the dangers even in Western Washington, after that first rain fires can still hit.

“It gets better and better every year, but its always going to happen,” Scriven said.