QUEBEC: Three Canadian provinces are lending a helping hand to Quebec’s forest protection and wildfire agency, SOPFEU, as it struggles to contain numerous wildfires tearing through the northern part of the province.
New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and British Columbia are dispatching wildland firefighters to reinforce local crews on the ground. A contingent of 63 wildland firefighters from British Columbia arrived in Quebec on July 3, with an additional 21 from New Brunswick and 17 from Prince Edward Island scheduled to join them on July 4.
These reinforcements will provide crucial relief to the 640 Quebec wildland firefighters and auxiliary staff who have been deployed in the field for days. The scale of the emergency is immense, with 186 active wildfires burning across northern Quebec and another 14 detected within the province’s designated protection zone.
SOPFEU stated in a briefing that many of these wildfires are burning deep underground, fueled by dry subterranean matter. This specific type of fire makes containment efforts incredibly slow and complex, as they take much longer to completely extinguish.
“The arrival of these firefighters will enable SOPFEU to handle this significant increase in workload,” the agency noted in an official statement, emphasizing that the extra manpower will allow crews to rotate and maintain a sustained attack on the blazes.
