September 12, 2020 7:40 a.m.

Senator Jeff Merkley has announced that Oregon has received the federal funding needed to train two additional National Guard teams to help fight wildfires in Oregon.

On Wednesday, Governor Kate Brown announced her intention to train the additional teams. However, the National Guard Bureau initially indicated that it could not provide the financial resources necessary for the additional training. Merkley said he intervened, and prompted the National Guard Bureau to find additional resources within the training program to allow the two firefighting teams to be trained and deployed.

The release said the training will begin as soon as an instructor can reach Oregon, and will take four to five days to complete.

Merkley said after the devastating 2017 wildfire season, he worked to create the program and last year was able to grow it.  It began with $7 million dollars and was increased to $8.5 million dollars. Oregon initially received approximately $900,000 to train three teams of 125 National Guard service members. Those 375 members are being deployed across the state. The release said by bringing additional funding to Oregon, there will soon be a total of five National Guard teams fighting the fires in Oregon.