JACKSON, Miss. (AP) -- Every summer Mississippi firefighter Danny Bryant packs his gear and heads out West for a blazing showdown against one of nature's most destructive forces - the wildfire.
Bryant, a fire training officer with the Mississippi Forestry Commission, has been fighting wildfires for almost two decades and, for the past 15 years, has joined a firefighters taking on blazes in the West.
The commission has about 650 employees trained not only to do their regular jobs but to also battle wildfires that plague the state during dry periods, normally in the early spring and fall.
Of that number, more than 90 employees are certified to travel around the county to battle fires like the current 9,200-acre Carson City, Nev., blaze that has burned 14 homes and forced evacuations of hundreds of others.
There's no shortage of hot spots.
In California, a 10,000-acre wildfire forced 200 teenagers from two juvenile probation camps on Friday and continued threaten rural hamlets on the edge of the Angeles National Forest.
Bryant said he doesn't mind camping in a valley with bears and mountain lions or bathing in a makeshift shower in the back of an 18-wheeler.
``It's actually kind of fun roughing it,'' he said.
Firefighters from Mississippi and elsewhere are dispatched to remote points during the wildfire season, setting up makeshift camps that offer laundry facilities, a kitchen, a medical tent, and other basic services.
``Everything is mobile and can be picked up and moved to another site,'' said Kent Grizzard, the Forestry Commission spokesman. ``It's like a small city, set up in the middle of the woods.''
Bryant said when the fires aren't in remote areas, the camps can go up almost anywhere. Fire crews have camped on football fields or in school yards, he said.
He said while fighting wildfires in Florida, firefighters stayed in hotels.
Bryant said the firefighters spend a majority of their time in training and becoming qualified in the various specialties unique to firefighting.
Once trained, crews are called up if their area of expertise is needed.
Mississippi's 20-member hand tool team - the infantry of wildfire fighting - normally goes on assignment once a year. The primary responsibility of these teams is to construct a fire line, a strip of land cleared of flammable materials, to control burning.
There are 17 instant management teams that rotate around the country each week helping with wildfires. Bryant is a member of one and expects his rotation to come up in a couple of weeks. Last summer, he fought fires in Glacier National Park in Montana.
``We are usually gone for 14 days, but sometimes we get extensions to stay an extra seven days,'' he said.
Grizzard said firefighters from other states come in to assist when a fire gets too big for local and regional officials to handle themselves.
``Thousands of people can work on one incident,'' he said.
Mississippi's team is often called to assist with national forest fires or national park fires.
Grizzard said during the summer months, Mississippi's wildfire season is slow due to a combination of weather and land conditions.
``Our fire season is normally early spring and fall,'' he said.
Wildfires in the western part of the country are more prominent in the summer due to the topography, weather patterns and forest fuel, such as sticks and leaves.
