Twenty Delaware firefighters have been in northern Idaho for the past week fighting a 180-acre fire. The blaze, known as the Copper Mountain fire, has been burning since Aug. 2, when it was started by a lightning strike. Only 20 percent of it is contained.

“Firefighters are working in rough terrain and completing very long hikes to and from the fire each day,” said Michael A. Valenti, a Dover resident serving as Delaware’s state forester and crew boss.

Delaware’s team is part of a crew of 137 personnel staying in relatively primitive conditions of a spike camp, a remote camp near a fire line that lacks the logistical support of a larger fire camp, such as catered meals and hot showers, officials said, so the crews are eating MREs (meals ready to eat). Fire officials are coordinating with the British Columbia Wildfire Service on suppression efforts.

Above, Delaware’s crew tackles a flare-up on Division Tango of the 180-acre Copper Mountain Fire in northern Idaho near the border of Canada.

At left, Delaware’s crew hikes back to its spike camp after a long day on the line at the Copper Mountain Fire.