Wildfire-fighting efforts in the Yukon are receiving a boost with the arrival of about 40 firefighters from British Columbia.
Manon Touffet, a fire information officer with Yukon Wildland Fire Management, said 10 initial attack crews arrived from British Columbia on Friday. She said one crew has been tasked with fighting the Mount Dave Fire near Beaver Creek and the rest will work on fires in the Mayo region.
Speaking with Black Press Media on July 21, B.C. Minster of Forests Ravi Parmar said that although the province is staring down the beginning of a hot, dry August he knew that British Columbia needed to step up to help the Yukon.
鈥淚t's why at the request of Yukon, we're sending 40 wildland firefighters in addition to two agency representatives. So those 40 wildland firefighters make up initial attack crews. They're out on the ground, responding, fighting fires, and the agency representatives are helping to coordinate and support those wildland firefighters as well,鈥� Parmar said.
鈥淭hey'll be on a deployment for about 14 days, and we'll continue to reassess our situation here in British Columbia, but we're really pleased to be in a position to be able to provide that support.鈥�
Parmar noted that B.C. firefighters have assisted Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario this year as well. He said this reflects the investments made to expand the B.C. Wildfire Service.
The Yukon saw crews from Prince Edward Island and Oregon arrive to help earlier this wildfire season. The territory sent a crew of its own to aid Alberta in June.
There are 91 active wildfires in the Yukon as of 5 p.m. on July 22 and 122,129 hectares have burned so far this season.
鈥攚ith files from Mark Page
Contact Jim Elliot at jim.elliot@yukon-news.com
