Ontario is lending support to the forest fire suppression efforts in western Canada.
Over 160 personnel with the Ministry of Natural Resources Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services are working in Alberta, Manitoba and British Columbia.
The province last week deployed 21 staff to Manitoba, consisting of five four-person initial attack fire ranger crews and an agency representative.
A separate contingent of 100 fire rangers, 19 fire management personnel and a 24-person incident management team was sent to Alberta Wildfire with their suppression efforts.
Spokesperson Chris Marchand says equipment is also loaned.
“An Ontario air attack package that consists of two CL 415 water bombers, a bird dog aircraft and an air attack officer also left the province en route to British Columbia in response to a request for assistance from the BC wildfire service,” says Marchand.
One-hundred and fifty hose packs were also loans to Alberta.
Marchand says their deployment can last as long as 19 days.
A quiet fire situation in Ontario has allowed the province to offer the support.
Marchand says they still have the resources to handle any fire activity that does break out.
“We certainly remain ready to respond with the existing resources that we have here in the province. We are seeing a bit of a pickup in fire activity in the province, though it’s mostly happening in somewhat remote areas. So there’s not a lot of requirement for action on fires that are in the far north but not necessarily affecting any people.”
As of Monday, eight fires were active in northwestern Ontario and located in the Far North region and being observed.
