The Seattle Times reports two people fighting the Bear Gulch fire were arrested by federal law enforcement Wednesday.

The two firefighters arrested at the Bear Gulch fire had entered the U.S. illegally, according to a news release Thursday from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Federal officials say that on Wednesday, agents from the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service and Border Patrol carried out an operation at a wildfire work site in which the contracts of two private firefighting firms were terminated after a criminal investigation by BLM.

Border Patrol did not provide details of the criminal investigation.

The release said the agents identified two people who were in the U.S. illegally. The Border Patrol release did not identify the two people but said they were

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