U.S. supports Canada with aviation resources

For Release: June 16, 2023                                                          

Contact: Jennifer Myslivy, Public Affairs Specialist, jmyslivy@blm.gov, 208-789-6181

U.S. supports Canada with aviation resources

Boise, Idaho – As wildfires continue to burn in Canada, the U.S. is sending additional U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), USDA Forest Services (USFS), and state wildland firefighting and support personnel to assist with ongoing wildfire suppression efforts in Canada. With increased fire activity across the provinces, multiple requests for resources from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) are being filled for Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec. Resources include hand crews, incident management teams, fireline leadership positions, and various aviation assets.

Aviation assets have now been requested, including airtankers and smokejumpers. Through the Northwest and Great Lakes Compacts, with Alaska, Washington, and Minnesota, three airtankers in Alberta and three fire bosses (scooping single engine air tankers) in Ontario are assisting ground resources with fire suppression efforts. Additionally, the Bureau of Land Management and USFS are sending two aircraft, four spotters, and 36 smokejumpers to assist with fire suppression efforts in British Columbia.

“We’re proud of our personnel for continuing to step up and make themselves available for assignment in Canada,” said Dave Haston, National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group (NMAC) representative for the U.S. Forest Service. “The NMAC will continue to respond promptly to Canadian requests for additional fire suppression resources and provide critical support during this current period of relatively light fire activity in the U.S.”

Since May 8, the U.S. has mobilized a total of 839 personnel to Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and the CIFFC, which includes: 36 fire suppression crews (677 personnel), 77 individual overhead, and six incident management teams (84 personnel).

Current U.S. resources assigned to Canadian incidents (includes federal and state compact resources) as of June 16, 2023:

A new NIFC International Support webpage at https://www.nifc.gov/fire-information/international-support will be updated weekly (by Friday morning) with resource and personnel numbers. Additional information will be shared on the NIFC Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/NIFCFire/ and Twitter at https://twitter.com/NIFC_Fire.

As smoke from Canadian wildfires continues to impact various areas in the U.S., air quality information about wildfire smoke can be found on AirNow athttps://www.airnow.gov/wildfires/.

For the most current information concerning the wildfires burning in Canada, please visit the CIFFC website at https://ciffc.net/.