Fire crews from the northwest are off to the Yukon today to help with wild fires ravaging the territory.
Two initial attack crews from the Northwest Fire Centre are being sent to the Village of Carmacks, a community of 500 people located 177km north of Whitehorse.
The Yukon is reporting an ‘extreme’ fire rating for Carmacks, where there are currently 15 fires, burning an area of nearly 12,000 hectares.
The crews from the Northwest Fire Centre are being joined by one crew from the Cariboo Fire Centre and another unit crew from the Prince George Fire Centre.
The B.C. crews are able to be deployed because most of the northwest region is seeing a low risk of wildfires, with the exception of the far north. Additionally, there are enough fire personnel available in B.C. to respond to fire activity here.
According to the Ministry of Forest, Lands and Natural Resources, B.C. crews can stay in other jurisdictions for up to 19 days, but are able to be recalled back to B.C. at any time.
The costs to deploy fire crews to other regions are covered under the Mutual Aid Resource Sharing Agreement, which allows the sharing of Canadian firefighters within the country.
