Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
British Columbia and Alberta are requesting outside help to fight a wave of new wildfires that are expected over the next week as a result of dry conditions and a heat dome over Western Canada.
In separate press briefings Thursday, officials from both provinces gave updates on evacuation numbers and confirmed requests for more wildfire fighters have been made to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC), the Winnipeg-based agency that co-ordinates such help from other parts of Canada and a handful of other countries.
British Columbia’s Emergency Management Minister, Bowinn Ma, said roughly a quarter of the province’s 2,000 wildfire fighting staff are currently deployed to 149 blazes in a situation she characterized as “comfortable and confident.”
But, she said, prolonged drought persists across much of the province and a heat dome is expected to keep the weather warm until at least next weekend, so her government is requesting more than 180 firefighters from outside B.C. and some advanced planning and fire behaviour specialists from Australia.
Requesting such aid in the face of concerning forecasts – and not after many more fires are sparked – was a key recommendation made by a panel of experts who studied B.C.’s response to last year’s historically-destructive season, Ms. Ma said.
“By being proactive in our request for additional resources, we can ensure that that lag that it often takes for additional resources to come in from out of province doesn’t impact our ability to protect communities and protect British Columbians,” she said.
Ms. Ma also announced a campfire ban starts noon on Friday for the whole province, except the rainy archipelago of Haida Gwaii. And she said there are two remote evacuation orders in the province: one for a reserve on the lands of the Fort Nelson First Nation, and one for an area in the District of Wells.
Across the Rockies, Alberta on Thursday confirmed that it is seeking help from the CIFFC. Ontario sent 100 firefighters and 43 overhead staff, while New Brunswick added 20 firefighters and six overhead staff to Alberta’s operations, officials said.
“Most of them will be going to relieve our firefighters on the line,” said Todd Loewen, Alberta’s Minister of Forestry and Parks.
Wildfire season in Western Canada falls into ‘historically normal’ category - for now
This week’s scorching heat accelerated and intensified fire activity in the province. The total area burned has doubled in the last 48 hours, according to Melissa Story, a spokesperson for Forestry and Parks. Fires have mowed down about 200,000 hectares so far this year, close to the five-year average, she said.
Since July 1, there have been 184 new wildfires and 99 of those have been caused by lightning, Ms. Story added.
Alberta also imposed a fire ban across its entire forest protected area, but off-highway vehicles are still permitted, Mr. Loewen noted.
The Little Red River Cree Nation community of Garden River, in northern Alberta, is the only area under evacuation order, the province said Thursday. The nation evacuated 981 residents from Garden River Wednesday evening because a fire is threatening to close a highway which provides access to the community.
Since the start of the year, 2,403 fires have burned across the country, according to CIFFC’s Thursday update, with Alberta reporting the most by far at 655. B.C. is next with 394.
Alexandria Jones, a spokesperson with the CIFFC, said no foreign firefighters are currently working in Canada, but that, so far this season, Newfoundland, Quebec, Ontario and every province in the West except for Saskatchewan have requested help.
“Resource requests are coming in daily, and we are beginning to have conversations with our international partners to see what their availability is like,” she said.
Last year’s fire season was Canada’s worst on record, burning 18.5 million hectares and forcing some 230,000 people from their homes.
Mike Flannigan, a professor at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, B.C., who has been studying the interaction of fire with weather and climate for more than 35 years, said the season to date may seem much better than normal because of last year’s calamity.
But, Dr. Flannigan said, B.C. in particular has already seen roughly 600,000 hectares burn, which is more than three times the average amount of terrain scorched by this time of year over the past decade. And much of this destruction has been due to “zombie fires” that smouldered over the winter.
The total number of fires will likely increase significantly in the next week, he said, with tinder-dry fuel across much of the province and cold fronts bringing lightning in the coming days.