Two northwest unit crews and two initial attack crews have been deployed to Ontario to help battle fires in Thunder Bay and Dryden.
Two initial attack crews from Burns Lake and Terrace, consisting of three people each, left for Ontario on Tuesday. They’ll be joined by two 20-person unit crews from Telkwa and Burns Lake, who fly out of Prince George today.
While a 14-day deployment is the usual length of time on the job, crews can be gone for up to a maximum of 19 days, including travel days.
This leaves two 20-person unit crews from Hazelton and Terrace to cover the Northwest, along with six three-person initial attack crews.
Lindsay Carnes, the northwest fire centre’s information officer, said the crews can be sent home earlier if the fire situation worsens in B.C. or if Ontario’s fire situation stabilizes and they are no longer required.
Carnes says the wildfire management branch looks over its resources before sending crews out of the province and looks at the current and forecast fire situation based on the weather forecast.
“B.C. has experienced a cool and damp spring and the Northwest has more than adequate resources to deal with anticipated fire activity for the next two weeks,” she said.
So far, there’s been a total of 361 fire crew members and wildfire management personnel deployed to Ontario this week from the province.
B.C. fire crews have helped out with Alberta, Alaska and Yukon fires this summer, and are deployed through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre that provides resource sharing when needed. In this case, costs are being covered by the Ontario government.