BC Crews Head North And East To Fight Fires
Sunday, July 7, 2013 @ 1:53 PM
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(Firefighters cross YXS tarmac to board flight heading for Quebec. Photos – 250 News)
Prince George, B.C. – Firefighters from British Columbia are being sent to two other jurisdictions to help battle raging forest fires.
Five 20-person unit crews, four task force leaders and two representatives from the Wildfire Management Branch have been sent to Quebec to help with fire suppression efforts there. A spokesman at the Prince George Fire Centre says suppression crews from the Northwest and Cariboo Fire Centres flew out of Prince George today (photo below) headed for CFB Bagotville, Quebec. He says nobody from the Prince George Fire Centre made the trip because resources were needed to fight fires in the Fort Nelson area. 84 firefighters are now working on a number of fires in the Yukon Territory. The largest fire, the Beaver River fire, is located just over the BC-Yukon border 240 kilometres east of Watson Lake. That blaze has covered 30,000 hectares since June 24th and is burning in a remote area so it’s just being monitored at this point.
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Fire Information officer George Maratos with the Yukon Fire Centre says the fire “made a significant run early last week because of high winds. It moved over 20 kilometres in one day. The biggest concern right now is with a gas plant 22 kilometres from the fire. Officials met with the four staff members at the plant and they’re prepared to evacuate if required. Fortunately it has been quieter on the fire lines with light winds and cooler temperatures in the past couple of days. But that said, residents in the Fort Liard area may encounter smoke from these fires because they are quite large.”
Maratos says the past two-and-a-half weeks have produced 87 fires in the Yukon, all but nine of them caused by lightning. “The heat combined with the wind and lightning is the perfect recipe for increased activity.”
Firefighters here in northern B.C. have not been very busy so far this year. A total of 111 fires have scorched about 2108 hectares. The fire danger rating in the Prince George Fire Centre is low to moderate right now.
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