East Berne, N.Y. (WNYT) — East Berne and Berne Volunteer Fire Companies went down to Orange County with two brush units, two wild land ATVs and 11 volunteers.

“It’s all about situational awareness– where you’re putting your feet, where you’re putting your hose, what direction you’re going, where’s your escape route. It’s a treacherous, treacherous area for a fire,” said Chief Scott Duncan of the East Berne Volunteer Fire Company.

The Jennings Creek Wildfire has burned more than 5,300 hundred acres of land. A State Parks employee died earlier this month.

The Department of Environmental Conservation said Monday that the wildfire is 88% contained.

“This fire in particular is very dangerous,” said Chief Duncan. “The falling aspect of it just alone, again, a lot of cliffs, a lot of loose rock. The fire, the wind changing direction several times during the fire so just when you thought you were gaining some ground, the wind would change and unfortunately it would ignite again and just burn in a different direction.”

The Berne Fire District has extensive training for its calls at state forests, making members a valuable asset here.

“So a lot of our people are low-angle rescue certified. A lot of our people are wild land fire suppression certified, wild land search-and-rescue certified,” said the chief.

Volunteers were so willing to help, East Berne had a deployment list ready to go before they even got the call from the county.

“I had 11 people that were calling my phone every 30 seconds saying we’re ready, we’re ready, we’re ready! As did a lot of other local fire companies,” said Chief Duncan.

And the help keeps coming. Hudson firefighters got back Friday night after a 72-hour deployment. Village of Ravena firefighters just came back, and Catskill Fire Company is down there now. Companies all over the Capital Region are stepping up to help.