Northwest fire officials declared what essentially amounts to a state of emergency early Friday, calling on national resources to help tapped out crews fighting wildfires in Oregon and Washington.

The declaration of a Preparedness Level 5, the top tier, will help bring in firefighters from other states at a time of dire need, said Carol Connolly, a spokeswoman for the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center.

“We don’t have anything available anymore,” Connolly said. “We’re out of hot shot crews, we’re out of initial attack crews, we’re at a drawdown for incident management teams. We’re bringing in incident management teams from out of the region.”

Fire officials are juggling 20 large fires in Oregon and Washington, with three new blazes flaring in the past 24 hours. Two of them are in Oregon, which is ablaze in the north, south, east and central parts of the state.

The Radio Tower fire, six miles southeast of Baker City, has scorched 3,300 acres. Initial attack crews have made good progress, with 80 percent containment. They’re now turning to mop-up operations which involves snuffing flare-ups inside the perimeter. The other new large fire in Oregon is located 11 miles northwest of Paulina. The Oscar Canyon fire is also in good shape after burning more than 300 acres. It is 79 percent contained with firefighters there mopping up as well.

From OregonLive.com: https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2014/07/oregon_washington_put_on_top_l.html#incart_m-rpt-1