BC Wildfire Service personnel boarding a plane at Kamloops Airport on Friday, May 30. (Image Credit: Jean Strong/BC Wildfire Service)

By Victor Kaisar

BCWS Deployment

Nearly 170 BCWS personnel leave Kamloops Friday to fight fires in three Canadian provinces

May 30, 2025 | 12:38 PM

KAMLOOPS — (UPDATE 4:00 p.m.): The BC Wildfire Service is once again sending in a crew of firefighters and support staff to battle wildfires burning in other Canadian provinces.

Information Officer Sarah Budd told CFJC Today that a 168 personnel boarded a plane at Kamloops Airport Friday (May 30) morning bound for Manitoba, Ontario, and Saskatchewan.

“Seventeen of those folks are going to Ontario to assist with operations there while 88 will be headed to Manitoba where we have also had some support personnel already,” Budd said. “We’re also sending 63 folks to Saskatchewan and this is our first deployment there.”

Budd said this latest contingent from B.C. included firefighting crews, supervisory staff, equipment, as well as an Incident Management Team. While they flew out of Kamloops, it included personnel who were based a number of different fire centres.

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“We are part of the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC), which is our coordinating body nationally,” Budd said. “Depending on the level of activity in a province, we work with CIFFC to allocate resources to where they’re most needed.”

Budd said it will up to officials in those other provinces to decide where these crews from B.C. will be deployed to.

This deployment comes as both Saskatchewan and Manitoba declared provincewide states of emergency as both continue to deal with fires, most of which are scorching pockets of rural communities in remote northern regions.

Thousands of people have been evacuated across Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Alberta

“These are all agencies that have come to support us in the past and we’re happy to be able to return the favour when we’re able to,” she said.

It’s not the first time that the BC Wildfire Service has sent crews to other provinces this year. It previously sent crews over to Manitoba and Ontario earlier this month, as well as to California in January.

“While we are supporting our partners right now, we are also maintaining the resources that we need in B.C. to respond to wildfires here as the weather warms up and we start to see more fires on the landscape.”

As of publishing, there were 65 active wildfires across B.C., 55 of which were in the Prince George Fire Centre. There is one wildfire of note, the Kiskatinaw River fire, south of Dawson Creek, which has led to an evacuation order in the Peace River Regional District.

“Kamloops isn’t alone in not having a ton of fire on the landscape right now,” Budd said. “We don’t have a lot happening right now in five other centres, and its Prince George really which is the fire centre where the vast majority of activity is.”

More information about BC Wildfire Service deployments to other jurisdictions can be found here.