Additional Fire Crews Coming from Other Provinces

By 250 News

Kamloops, B.C.-  British Columbia is welcoming additional personnel from Alberta and Ontario to help B.C. fire crews as fire activity continues to increase around the province.

Two hundred and thirty experienced firefighters and fire specialists are arriving Sunday, August 1. This includes 10 four-person initial attack crews, five 20-person sustained action unit crews, three highly specialized incident command teams, fire behaviour analysts, incident commanders and division supervisors.

The Alberta and Ontario personnel will be placed mainly to the Cariboo and  Kamloops Fire Centres, but placement will also be determined based on fire activity and anticipated need. It is important that some firefighting crews be on standby in all fire centres in case new fires start. Additional crews will also make sure all firefighting staff get their required time off in accordance with safe work standards.

British Columbia has also acquired 14 additional aircraft, including birddog planes and airtankers from the Province's two airtanker suppliers, and from Alberta and the Yukon. The Provincial Air Tanker Centre is establishing a temporary facility at the Quesnel Airport to accommodate these additional aircraft.

All deployments are co-ordinated through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, with the Ministry of Forests and Range's Wildfire Management Branch paying the costs of the deployments. Earlier this year, B.C. sent crews to four other jurisdictions to help with their firefighting efforts.

The fire danger rating for most of British Columbia is high to extreme, and weather forecasters are not expecting it to improve any time soon. This prolonged period of hot and dry weather is expected to continue through the coming week in many areas of the province, particularly the Southern and Central Interior regions.

Right now, 353 wildfires are burning in the province, 150 of which started over the last three days. Since April 1, crews around the province have responded to 1,100 wildfires, of which 487 have been human-caused, 580 lightning-caused and 33 are still under investigation. These fires have burned a total of 59,781 hectares.

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