The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador has sent four more forest firefighting personnel to British Columbia in response to requests for assistance to help address the severe forest fire threat that continues to impact many parts of that province.

The staff from the Department of Fisheries, Forestry and Agriculture, will be a part of an Incident Management Team that will fill the positions of Strike Team Leader, Situation Unit Leader and Resource Unit Leader. They will be deployed to the Kamloops region where they will be responsible for coordinating tactical missions in response to wildland fire incidents, monitoring weather and fire behavior and coordinating firefighting equipment and resources.

It is anticipated the deployment will last for 19 days.

Three personnel including an Incident Commander, a Logistics Section Chief, and one Logistics Section Chief trainee who departed for British Columbia August 1 returned to the province earlier this week.

Requests for assistance are administered through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, Mutual Aid Resource Sharing (MARS) agreement. This agreement between provinces provides for the efficient sharing of forest firefighting resources where required throughout the country.

Adequate fire suppression resources remain in place throughout Newfoundland and Labrador to manage forest fires. This includes four water bombers, several helicopters and firefighting staff, strategically located throughout the province.

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Media contact
Craig Renouf
Fisheries, Forestry and Agriculture
637-2923, 640-6922
craigrenouf@gov.nl.ca