By Hal Bernton
The Seattle Times

SEATTLE — Northwest fire officials on Monday scrambled to come up with crews able to go to Southern California to fight the fierce fires there.

That effort was complicated by the timing of these blazes, which have erupted long after many of the Northwest crews have disbanded for the season. But by day's end Monday, fire officials had been able to secure 23 of the 25 fire engines and crews requested for California.

"If this was July or August, there would be substantially greater resources available; that is just the nature of the game," said Mike Fitzpatrick, with the Portland-based Northwest Interagency Coordination Center.

Three of the engines and their crews will come from Western Washington two from the Olympic Peninsula and one from the North Bend area. The rest of the engines and crews will come from Oregon. Two Hot Shot crews highly skilled ground crews who typically fight wildland fires also are being recruited from Oregon.

The Northwest firefighters will be part of a broader wave of national reinforcements that, as of Monday evening, was expected to include 91 fire engines and their crews, nine helicopters and 27 Hot Shot and other fireline crews, according to a spokesman for the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise.

Copyright 2007 The Seattle Times Company