BOISE — Active-duty soldiers are on their way to fight wildfires in Northern California.

The National Interagency Fire Center’s National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group has requested the Department of Defense to send about 200 active-duty Army soldiers, plus command and support staff.

Jennifer Myslivy, U.S. Bureau of Land Management external affairs specialist at Boise-based NIFC, said in an interview that the soldiers will leave Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Wash., for the Dixie Fire Aug. 31 for field training.

She said the training is expected to conclude by Sept. 3, their first day on the fire line as Type 2 wildland firefighters. They will be divided into crews of 20.

Military firefighters add flexibility in addition to manpower. Myslivy said they can mop up and place water hoses, for example, so more experienced Hotshot crews “can be put where they are needed, possibly where the fire is more intense.”

NIFC said soldiers supporting fire response operations will be outfitted with personal protective equipment and other gear. Experienced fire strike team leaders and crew bosses will accompany them.

Myslivy said the soldiers are slated to return to military service Sept. 29.

The longtime partnership between firefighting agencies and the military provides “a great resource on the ground,” this year much-needed on Dixie Fire, she said.

The deployment also helps ease the impact of some firefighters returning to college.

The Defense Department granted two similar requests in 2020 to fight the August Complex and Creek wildfires in California.

The Dixie Fire stood at 765,635 acres and 48% contained late Aug. 29. It started July 13 and is burning in Butte, Lassen, Plumas, Shasta and Tehama counties.

A total of 3,817 people are working on the fire. Its cause remains under investigation.

As of Aug. 29, 85 large fires were burning 2.5 million acres. More than 27,000 firefighters and support personnel are deployed.

Year to date, 42,423 fires have burned more than 4.9 million acres, up from 39,613 fires and more than 3.95 million acres in the same period of 2020.