Minister Ma delivers wildfire update

“As Minister Ma stated, we have called in for additional support from Australia and New Zealand,” explains Cliff Chapman, Director of Wildfire Operations. “That’s in the form of incident management teams and highly trained and highly certified individuals that can support us on these fires if they do get a little bit bigger than an initial attack. In addition to that, we’ve also put in requests for more crews to come and support us on the ground. I think what’s different this year than previous years is that we have much more engagement with communities and their firefighting resources through the cooperative community firefighting program.”

More lightning and wind are expected this coming weekend and that could change the wildfire landscape once again.

“For all of British Columbians, my message is like, be diligent. We are going to see lightning. We saw 1300 lightning strikes yesterday, many of which started fires in the Southeast Fire Center. And we’ll pick up more today with lightning. We’re also going to see wind. So we need everyone in B.C. to be diligent. And if you’re on an evacuation order, please leave so that we can do response in that area.”

In anticipation of that dangerous weather, Chapman says the BC Wildfire Service has stepped up their response preparedness across all zones to ensure they able to get initial attacks quickly.

by Cheryl Jahn

Minister Ma delivers wildfire update

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