The Capital Region welcomes home some heros Friday afternoon. As YNN's Maria Valvanis explains, local volunteers arrived back at Albany International, after helping put out thousands of acres of wildfires.

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ALBANY, N.Y. -- Crew Boss, Dave Kallen, said "Things went great, it was a great crew, my hat is off to this group."

Kallen is talking about the 20-person volunteer crew he has been in charge of for the last 14 days, fighting two wild fires in Montana.

"In this particular case, we were assigned to a fire in Polson, Montana," explained Kallen.

Kallen says that fire was nearly 10,000 acres, and active when they arrived. But from there, the work wasn't over, crews were assigned fight another fire in Greenough.

"Temperatures were in the upper nineties, most of the time, and it was a steep terrain," said Eric Kasza, DEC Forest and Lands.

James Canevari, DEC Forest and Lands, said "There were a lot of burned trees, that could of fallen on us at anytime."

The nationwide dry conditions helped fuel the fires, crews say everything they learned, they will bring back home.

"One of the reasons we do this is to gain experience, so we can bring that knowledge back, and use it in state when we do have our large incidences, such as large searches," said Kallen.

Crew members say after sleeping on the ground for the past two weeks, they are most excited for their own beds and to take a shower.

"We get two shirts and two pairs of pants, and we save one for the trip home, so I've been wearing the same shirt, and same pair of pants," noted Canevari.

"I don't look at myself as a hero or anything, I'm just doing my job," said Kansza.