Several Vancouver firefighters and emergency response personnel have been sent to help fight some of the wildfires raging in B.C.’s interior.
Last week, six members of Canada Task Force-1, Vancouver’s heavy urban search and rescue team, headed the provincial emergency operations centres in Prince George and Kamloops.
The city also sent an emergency planning coordinator, one of the city’s key staff in the office of emergency management, to Prince George to help with the fire response.
Canada Task Force-1 is a special operations team of up to 120 members with medical, fire suppression, emergency response, search and rescue, and engineering backgrounds. The team is available as a key emergency response resource across the province, as well as nationally and internationally when required.
Vancouver’s fire department also sent a fire engine, four firefighters and a mechanic to Williams Lake, where thousands were evacuated over the weekend.
Local firefighters join firefighters from across the province, the country and the world that have converged to help battle the blazes burning in B.C.’s interior. The B.C. Wildfire Service announced Monday that about 50 specialized wildfire personnel from Australia are scheduled to arrive in Vancouver on Wednesday and will be deployed throughout the province.
There are currently more than 160 wildfires burning across B.C.
