Fire season has already made its mark on the Inland Northwest and now, crews are getting ready for the heat of summer. Dozens of firefighters took training to new heights Wednesday.
As part of the Eastern Washington Interagency Fire Training Academy, crews worked to load rigs onto a helicopter during a 16-hour course. Operations chief Jim Walkowski said while they weren't putting out fires, loading rigs is still an important part of the job.
"The crew is tasked with basically the safety of the aircraft, in this case, the helicopter and then secondarily, making sure all the operations on the ground are being performed safely," Walkowski said.