The province of British Columbia is flying in even more additional fire fighting personnel to help battle the numerous blazes that are still burning throughout B.C.
An additional 90 personnel were brought into B.C. over the weekend as there are still 162 fires burning in the province.
The 90 firefighters from Ontario and Alberta were flown into Prince George before being sent out to fires in the province.
The incoming personnel are type one fire crews and specialized personnel and they will be performing key functions on the various fires.
The request for additional out of province personnel was mad through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC), which allows for the sharing of resources between provinces and territories in Canada.
The cost of the additional fire fighters will be covered by B.C.
In addition to the 90 firefighters that arrived over the weekend, two dispatchers from Alaska arrived on Aug. 20.
The assistance is provided under the Northwest Compact that sees resource sharing between B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories in Canada and the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska in the United States.
The fire fighters join the 1350 provincial staff, 650 contractors, over 360 out of province personnel and the 75 personnel from Australia already fighting forest fires throughout the province.
Mayor Luke Strimbold thanked firefighting crews on behalf of the Burns Lake community.
“Tonight I had the opportunity to say thank you on behalf of our community to the fire fighters from all across the world that are working on the China Nose fire,” Strimbold said, “The crews work day and night to keep our communities safe and to protect our timber, which is our current and future economy. There are few words that express how grateful we all are.”
Over the weekend crews in the Northwest Fire Centre responded to eight new fires in the region.
It is suspected that seven of these fires were caused by lightning strikes, while one is being investigated as a human caused fire.
For the latest on wildfires in B.C. visit www.bcwildfire.ca.