Just last week, we reported on Team Rubicon’s effort to train and send military veterans to fight fires on the West coast. Now the situation in seven Western states has intensified and the military is sending 200 active duty soldiers to help Team Rubicon and local first responders quench the flames.

Military personnel are seldom called to help with fire suppression, and have only been called to do so 35 times since 1987. The last time soldiers helped extinguish fires was in 2006.

This year, no less than 95 fires have ravaged the West, burning 1.1 million acres in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, California, Nevada and Colorado. Hundreds of homes have been reduced to ash and thousands of people evacuated from their communities. The Nation Interagency Fire Center is on its highest alert, a level that hasn’t been reached since 2013.

The soldiers helping firefighters control the growing blaze come from the 17th Field Artillery Brigade, 7th Infantry Division. The NIFS said servicemen will be deployed in “quiet parts of the fire” so professional firefighters can focus on more dangerous infernos. The military is also lending C-130s to drop fire retardant from the skies.