Some National Park Service employees in Hawai'i are donning their firefighter hats to help battle raging wildfires in California that have engulfed more than 140,000 acres and destroyed 62 structures.

Firefighters on the 20-man crew, which passed through Honolulu Airport yesterday, have other park service jobs but are trained to fight fires and do so when duty calls.

Waipahu resident Raymond Eselu, who works in the maintenance division at the USS Arizona Memorial, said this will probably be the last time he travels to fight a fire. At 58 years old, he jokes that he's the grandpa of firefighters but says he's looking forward to the battle and to giving a helping hand.

"It's scary," Eselu said of previous firefighting assignments. "You have a rush of nervousness and yet you're trained and that training kicks in and hopefully we do it right."

Excited about the challenge, he said he's reviewing safety precautions he'll need to take when working.

"Just to refresh in my mind the danger of the thing," Eselu said.

The team members are from four national parks: Hawai'i Volcanoes, Haleakala, Pu'ukohola Heiau and World War II Valor in the Pacific (which includes Pearl Harbor sites). They will work in California for 21 days, on 16-hour shifts every day, said Joe Molhoek, National Park Service fire management officer for the Pacific islands network.

"They're a 'hand' crew," Molhoek said. "Where they go, you can't get a vehicle. They either fly in or hike in. That's what you use a hand crew for, for inaccessible areas."

There are about 75 trained park service firefighters in the Pacific islands, including Guam, American Samoa and Saipan, he said. Each one travels to fight fires, but with 15 firefighters working a wildfire on Moloka'i, Molhoek said he feels stretched thin.

The fire in California was about 22 percent contained yesterday and is expected to be under control by Sept. 15, according to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Web site.

The Hawai'i firefighters aren't sure where they will be going but it could be Yosemite National Park or a national forest, said Molhoek, who has gone twice so far this year to fight fires.

The crew is experienced and looks forward to the esprit de corps of working together and with other firefighters, he said.

"They get pretty excited," Molhoek said. "It's kind of an adventure for them and it's a little extra money. They look forward to a trip every year."