Federal troops to join wildfire fight
Ottawa sending aircraft as well to help deal with B.C.’s 600 blazes
The federal government has committed to sending troops and air assets to B.C., which is in the grips of a severe wildfire season that has forced the evacuation of thousands and cloaked large swaths of the province in a smoky haze.
Hours after the provincial government submitted a formal request for federal help in fighting the wildfires, Ottawa said it will send 200 troops to assist in mopup operations to contain the fires’ spread, as well as air assets to help transport firefighters, equipment and evacuees.
“British Columbians can rest assured that help will be provided as soon as possible,” said Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale and Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan in a joint statement on Monday.
The situation in B.C. is urgent, said B.C. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth.
“All areas of the province are facing high to extreme fire conditions,” Farnworth said during a teleconference call. “We are seeing fire activity in all fire regions of the province, including Vancouver Island and Haida Gwaii and the Lower Mainland.”
More than 3,400 wildfire personnel are fighting about 600 fires burning across the B.C., surpassing the number of wildfires in last year’s devastating wildfire season. Out of the approximately 600 blazes, 46 are classified as wildfires of note, indicating that they’re in proximity to communities or are especially visible or prominent.
As an indication of how tinderdry B.C. is, crews have responded to 143 fires since Saturday, said the province, the majority of which were caused by a lightning storm that moved through the southern third of B.C.
On Monday, more than two dozen evacuation orders were in place, booting about 3,100 people from their homes.
Another 43 evacuation alerts have been issued, affecting 17,900 people who have to be ready to leave their homes at a moment’s notice.
Farnworth said the province isn’t requesting cash or compensation at this time because funding is accessible through existing federal programs. The provincial government has spent $207 million to date battling the wildfires.
B.C. is also able to tap into the resources of the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre in Winnipeg to bring in firefighters from other parts of the country, as well as from countries like New Zealand, Australia and Mexico, Farnworth added. The request for federal assistance “typically only happens during fire seasons of exceptional fire activity,” said Ryan Turcot, fire information officer with the B.C. Wildfire Service.
The province made a request for federal assistance last year, and in 2003. The decision of where the Canadian Armed Forces will be deployed will be made by the B.C. Wildfire Service.
Hardest hit are areas in northwestern B.C., where at least 1,200 properties have been evacuated, but the damage is dispersed across the province, said Turcot.
“There isn’t a fire centre that doesn’t have wildfires of note right now.”
Environment Canada has issued air-quality advisories for Dease Lake and the Bulkley Valley and the southern half of B.C., including Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, where residents woke up to hazy skies.
Metro has also issued an airquality advisory due to the high concentration of fine particulate matter from wildfire smoke burning across the Pacific Northwest.
The B.C. Wildfire Service has responded to 1,785 wildfires since April 1, higher than the 10-year average of 1,216 fires.
But officials say that doesn’t mean it’s a worse situation this year. “What we experienced last year was fewer fires, but they were large in scale,” said Turcot.
This year’s wildfires have burned about 2,920 square kilometres to date, compared with 6,880 sq. km burned by just over 1,000 wildfires at this time last year.