The province wide state of emergency is in act and the call has been put out to fire departments to help with the out of control wild fires burning in BC’s central interior.
The View Royal Fire Department is mobilizing with spare resources to help. Assistant Fire Chief Rob Marshall says Fire Chief Paul Hurst is already in Kamloops while more resources are on standby ready to leave when signaled.
“One of our spare engines is loaded with structural protection equipment as well as forestry equipment and we are currently working on a schedule to be able to send groups of four fire fighters up. “
Marshall is recalling a similar experience in 2003 with the wildfires in the Okanogan.
“There is a lot of knowledge and experience and guys just want to get up there and help.”
Marshall says we will likely see a number of fire department go in response this week with conditions expected to be getting worse in the central interior.
The BC Wildfire Service announced on Sunday there are 230 wildfires burning across the province.
(photo credit) A firefighting helicopter flies past smoke in the air from a wildfire burning near Ashcroft, B.C., at sunset on Friday July 7, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck