New Zealand firefighters are gearing up to work with US fire crews as wildfires blaze across five of the country's drought hit states.

The US National Interagency Fire Centre in Boise announced last Thursday that 70 fire managers and specialists from both Australia and New Zealand had been requested.

The team will join nearly 29,000 firefighters working to contain some 100 large blazes in Washington, Montana, Oregon Idaho and California. US President Barack Obama has called a state of emergency as the fires continue to burn out of control.

The last time the US asked for help from Australia and New Zealand was in 2008.