TWO NORTHWEST forest service crews have been sent to northern Alberta as part of the massive effort to fight fires there.
Multiple blazes, some of which destroyed a portion of the community of Slave Lake, have stretched the ability of Alberta's own firefighters, causing the province to ask for help under a mutual aid agreement.
The Hazelton Rainmaker unit crew and the unit crew from Burns Lake are now on the fire lines, says BC Forest Service information officer Lindsay Carnes.
“In addition, four staff people have also been sent, three of whom are from the Northwest Fire Centre [in Smithers],” she said.
Unit crews typically consist of 20 people and are sent in for larger blazes.
Crews can spend as much as 19 days at a time, including travel days, on fire lines outside of the province before being rotated out for a rest period.
There remain two unit crews in the northwest, one based in Terrace, the Firebirds, and one in Telkwa, the Rangers.
A unit crew last year was moved out of Houston and is now based in Revelstoke.
Three-member initial attack crews are stationed all over the northwest with two in Terrace, one in Dease Lake, two in Telkwa, one in Houston and two in Burns Lake as the forest service gears up for another fire season here.
Initial attack crews are sent in when fires are small.
As for this year's fire threat in the northwest, Carnes said the long range weather forecast calls for a “cool, slow spring followed by a big question mark for the summer.”
She did add there are indications from Environment Canada that July and August may be drier and warmer than usual.
“But it is the rain in June that we are interested in. If the fuels are drier than normal, there is greater concern. If there is rain, then the fuels will be damper,” said Carnes.