California fire crews head to Australia to help with ongoing wildfires

(CNN) — 20 California firefighters are leaving today, Wednesday January 8th to help crews in Australia as they continue battle the raging wildfires there.

The members of the ‘U.S. Forest Service’ and ‘Angeles National Forest Fire’ teams were hand picked since they have experience dealing with large, burning trees.

The fires in Australia have claimed 24 lives since September.