HUTCHINSON, Kansas, July 3, 2008 – For nearly three weeks 1,700 wildfires have been burning in California.

The Governor has called in National Guard troops to help fight the fires and crews are getting help on the front lines from Kansas firefighters.

Some of those firefighters are made up of students and staff from Hutchinson Community College.

“It’s part of the training experience for them certainly, but it's also a way for these students to make some money and get hands-on experience,” said Ed Berger, president of Hutchinson Community College.

That experience will come in battling the fires that have already scorched more than 770 square miles.

The Fire Science Academy is one of only a few accredited schools in the country, and 30 to 40 percent of the students work summer internships out on the fire lines. Many of the students will spend their summer in California.

"We have wonderful training for our students,” Berger said. “They know the environment they're going into. They know the safety precautions."

The students are guided by their teachers Mark Sayler and his wife, Tina. They are experienced firefighters and are affiliated with up to two dozen forest service crew members from Kansas.

The conditions in California are like those Kansas trainees have prepared for; battling grass fires fueled here by high winds.

"We've had people help us before in different disasters and to be able to pay some of that back in this way, that's good for everybody,” said Rodney Redinger of the Hutchinson Fire Science Academy.

Students say a chance to travel to the action would be more than just a summer job.

"It would be an experience for me, just to drive out there and back, just to see different places and meet other people and hopefully join up with some classmates in California,” say Byron McDonald. “It would be awesome.”