Staff
With central British Columbia experiencing a rash of major forest fires, Ministry of Natural Resources FireRangers and support staff were dispatched today to help out.
A total of 122 firefighting personnel and support staff, including 15 FireRanger crews from bases across each of the West and East Fire Regions, have been deployed.
Local MNR fire operations supervisor Marnie Brown said this morning that two four-person FireRanger crews from here left this morning for Dryden, where they will be flown out to Kamloops.
“I am not sure specifically at this point where they will be deployed to, but at this point we know they will be travelling to Kamloops and getting their assignments from there,” she noted.
Brown added they could be deployed to sustain action on an existing fire or an initial attack on a new blaze.
Parts of central B.C. are seeing high levels of forest fire activity—the result of a mix of lightning storms and hot and dry weather.
In some cases, these fires have forced people to flee their homes.
The MNR Emergency Operations Centre in Sault Ste. Marie responded to this request from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) in Winnipeg, the co-ordinating organization for dispatches among the provinces and territories, the ministry noted.
Meanwhile, the fire situation remains quiet in the West Fire Region, with no new fires reported in the past 24 hours.
There currently are nine active fires in the region—one in Fort Frances District, one in Kenora District, two in Red Lake District, and five in Nipigon District—covering a total of 3,275.3 hectares.
Fort Frances District has seen 17 fires to date. The only one not responded to was Fort Frances Fire #16, which continues to burn in Quetico Provincial Park.
It is receiving a monitored fire response.
Under the Quetico Park fire management plan, the blaze is being allowed to play its natural role in the forest ecosystem.
Overall, there’s been a total of 170 fires to date in the region, having consumed 13,665.2 ha.
