Quiet wildfire season allows Kamloops air tankers to head south
KAMLOOPS — With fewer fires to fight than normal this summer the Kamloops Fire Centre has been able to send some of their resources to our southern neighbours.
BC’s chief fire information officer, Kevin Skrepnek, says two air tankers and a bird dog aircraft have been sent to the US to assist with that country’s busy fire season.
“They are seeing quite a bit of activity in the US right now, particularly in California,” Skrepnek said. “The US air tanker fleet is actually federally managed for the most part, so the US Forest Service was moving more of its resources into California to assist. So they brought in an air tanker group from BC into the pacific northwest to help kind of back-fill for some of those resources.”