A Kiwi firefighter bracing for his first day battling the worst wildfire in California's history says his team are under no illusions the conditions they're entering are "extreemly danergous".
Field liaison officer for the US deployment of New Zealand firefighters, Wipari Henwood, said he expected tough 12-hour-plus days fighting the blaze in the Californian mountains.
"Just arriving in this heat it has been pretty tough, but I'm sure we'll get acclimatised over the next few days," he said.
"Definitely out on those mountain ranges it's pretty high altitude out here working on some of that terrain, really steep country.
"So if you're going to have to fight the fires at the same time, yep it's going to be tough long days."
Mr Henwood is one of about 40 firefighters from New Zealand who will join an Australian contingent of firefighters sent to help the Americans.
He said the work schedule would be two 14-day shift patterns, up to 16-hours max, with two days break in between.
In the northern Californian city of Redding from which Mr Henwood was speaking it was 41C today.
"We're not under any illusions, these fire conditions are extremely dangerous, but in saying that, we've been well prepared for the job," Mr Henwood said.
"The systems that they've got in place are the best, so safety zones, escape routes, look outs, everything like that. So if things start to go the wrong way, the obvious option is to evacuate the area as soon as possible."
It is projected that the 18 separate fires across the West Coast US state will continue to burn for the duration of August.
But despite the gruelling schedule they face, Mr Henwood said morale among the Kiwi firefighters was not an issue.
"Just being in camp is enough to do that. You don't go walking down the streets of the camp here without every single American coming to thank you for coming to help," he said.
"You know, if you're walking down the street it's the same thing, it's pretty humbling.
"We're pretty luck to get the opportunity to come here, there's a lot of people back home who missed out on coming."
The largest wildfire ever recorded in California has needed just 11 days to blacken an area nearly the size of Los Angeles — and it's only one of many enormous blazes that could make this the worst fire season in state history.
Some 14,000 firefighters from as far away as Florida and from here in New Zealand are struggling to curb 18 fires in the midst of a sweltering summer that has seen wind-whipped flames carve their way through national forest land and rural areas, threaten urban areas and incinerate neighbourhoods.
California is seeing earlier, longer and more destructive wildfire seasons because of drought, warmer weather attributed to climate change and home construction deeper into the forests.
The flames, which had burned 1,184 square kilometres, were raging in mostly remote areas and no deaths or serious injuries were reported but 75 homes were destroyed.
The blaze that broke out July 27 initially spread quickly because of what officials said was a perfect combination of weather, rugged topography and abundant brush and timber turned to tinder by years of drought.
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