PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — As firefighters in Collier County continue to battle a brush fire that has consumed nearly 8,000 acres so far, a group of firefighters from Tampa Bay is on its way to help.

“We put together a regional team from Sumter County, Hernando County, Pasco County and the City of Lakeland Fire Department,” said Pasco County firefighter Shawn Whited.  “We’re going down there as a strike team of five fire engines.”

The caravan of fire trucks rolled out of town Thursday afternoon.

With reports that more than a dozen structures have been damaged and only a fraction of the fire is contained, Whited knows they’re heading into a lot of unknowns with a lot of dangerous work ahead of them.

“They won’t even know their assignments until they get down to Collier County,” Whited said. “But I imagine they’re going to be doing some firefighting, some structural protection and hopefully helping out some of those already overtaxed units.”

The Tampa Bay Fire crew is only expected to be deployed for the next five days, but officials here aren’t putting a cap on what they’ll do to help until the threat is extinguished.

“If they need more help then after that then we’ll see what we can muster together and send down there to help them after those five days,” Whited said.