Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adel Ahmed

WILDFIRE SEASON 2023

Canadian Armed Forces personnel arrive in Kamloops to help with wildfires

Jul 31, 2023 | 5:32 PM

KAMLOOPS — In one of the busiest wildfire seasons the province has ever seen, Canadian Armed Forces personnel arrived in Kamloops on July 28 from Prince George. More than 40 members who are now helping out in the city are based out of Alberta, Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia.

“We’ve done a lot of training and we want to put our skills and our machines to work and the most amount of good that we can,” helicopter pilot Cpt. Alex McKee told CFJC Today.

Weeks after Minister of Emergency Management Bowinn Ma made a request to the federal government, the Canadian Armed Forces are in Kamloops to assist the B.C. Wildfire Service with any assignment given to them.

“Any task that they have out on the fires or just generally in the region that we can assist with, they push down my chain of command to me,” said McKee. “If it’s a task we can complete, then we go out and assist in any way that we can.”

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One of McKee’s responsibilities is to spot any potential wildfires through a lightning detection map from the help of BCWS.

“Essentially, they would look at the map and they’d say, ‘Okay, here’s where the concentration of lightning strikes were.’ We would fly a route through those areas and, basically, just look out for smoke, look for fire. When we did find it, we would have to report that and call in size of the fire, what the area looks like, is it accessible and then BC Wildfire would determine the best way to attack that fire.”

The isn’t the first time the military has helped out. The most recent was in 2021. Given how early the wildfire season started, the help is appreciated by BCWS.

“Having those additional resources able to come in, take over an incident for a week or two weeks or cover a firefighter for a few days makes a really big difference in a season like the one we’re experiencing.” Information Officer Jean Strong told CFJC Today.

It’s unclear how long the military will be in Kamloops. Meantime, BCWS says there are 350 active wildfires in the province with 200 listed as out of control.