Prince George, B.C. – Half way through August,  and   just a couple of weeks  to go before students head back to class.  That  includes the post secondary students who have taken on summer jobs with the B.C. Wildfire Service.

“All of our firefighters are seasonal”  says BC Wildfire Service Chief Information Officer, Kevin Skrepnek.  “A  big portion  of that ( workforce)  are folks who do  return to school, a lot of our  support staff as well.  In terms of dispatchers and things like that, are  post secondary students.  So  we’ve been  putting a lot of planning into that crunch which is going to be coming in  a few weeks as those people start to transition out.”

Skrepnek says the BC Wildfire Service says replacements  will  come from a mix of  those from out of Province who are being brought in to  assist as well as other resources ” I know specifically around dispatchers, we’ve engaged with  the  Office of the Fire Commissioner to bring in additional resources from  local fire  department dispatch centres to assist us.”  He says there will also be assistance from   military,  type two  contract firefighters”We are going to be bulking  up in that capacity to make up  the gap  created when a lot of our own staff are heading back to school.”