Fifty firefighters working for three private companies in southwestern British Columbia have been fired because of allegations of drug use and safety violations.
From CBCNEWS.ca:
B.C.’s Minister of Forests and Range Pat Bell confirmed the workers were dismissed because the company did not provide enough “danger tree assessors,” who monitor the safety of trees in wildfire situations.
Bell also confirmed some workers were let go because they had allegedly been “using a banned substance,” but would not say how many crew members, what kind of substance or under what circumstances they were used.
The firefighters were employed by three companies: Grayco, Frontline and Firestorm. No one at the company office of Grayco, a Kamloops-based company, was answering CBC News calls on Monday.