130 U.S. firefighters deployed to wildfires in Canada

Five wildland fire suppression crews and 30 fireline management personnel are being mobilized to Canada to assist with fire suppression operations. Canada is experiencing an intense fire season and has requested wildland firefighting assistance from the United States.

The five 20-person wildland fire suppression crews were dispatched through the National Interagency Coordination Center in Boise, Idaho. Four of the crews are comprised of U.S. Forest Service firefighters from California, while one is a hotshot crew from the National Park Service in Estes Park, Colorado. The crews and the fireline management personnel will arrive in Edmonton, Alberta and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, over the weekend and will deploy to wildland fire incidents in both provinces. The U.S. also sent one heavy air tanker, a BAe-146, to Grande Prairie, Canada on July 5.

Acres burned in Alaska and Canada far ahead of average

Big Beaver Creek Fire
The Alaska Highway was closed to all traffic due to aggressive fire behavior observed on the Big Beaver Creek Fire in British Columbia Wednesday afternoon. The highway is closed between 386 km (Mile 250) and 418 km (Mile 260). British Columbia Wildfire Service photo.

It is barely mid-summer and wildfire activity in Alaska and western Canada has been much higher than average for this time of the year. As of July 8, the number of acres burned in Alaska is the second highest ever recorded for an entire year — 2004 holds the present record, but on a year to date basis, the state now is ahead of the same date in 2004 for acres burned.

The area blackened in Canada already exceeds the annual 10-year average for an entire year. The government has activated about 1,000 military personnel to help fight wildfires in Saskatchewan. Firefighters from eastern Canada have been mobilized to assist in the western provinces, and one BAe-146 air tanker from Missoula, Montana is also lending a hand.

Canada weeks area burned through July 1, 2015
Canada area burned on a weekly basis through July 1, 2015.

Alaska is also receiving help from firefighters in the lower 48 states. For example on Tuesday five 20-person crews were dispatched from California to Alaska, while snow flurries have been occurring for the past several days on the Inyo National Forest in California. Other Forests in the state received rain on Wednesday.

Here are some wildfire numbers, current on July 8, 2015:

  • United States: 30,017 fires, 3,821,726 acres
  • Alaska: 650 fires, 3,208,107 acres
  • Canada: 4,672 fires, 6,546,562 acres
Canada fires, July 8, 2015
Canada fires, July 8, 2015
Alaska Fires July 8, 2015
Alaska Fires July 8, 2015

Smoke is helping to control wildfires in Canada

Satellite view, smoke Canada fires
A satellite view of the location of fires in Canada July 2, 2015, represented by the red dots. Smoke can be seen drifting to the south and southeast.

You don’t usually think of smoke benefiting firefighters, especially their health, but the pollutants over a very widespread area are modifying the weather, making it a little easier to corral the numerous wildfires in some areas.

Below is an excerpt from The Weather Network.

Thursday, July 2, 2015, 5:14 PM – Even as plumes of heavy smoke from Alberta and Saskatchewan wildfires force thousands from their homes, officials find a silver lining, as the smoke is actually keeping the fires more under control.

Evacuation centres in central and southern Saskatchewan are reportedly housing at least 5,000 people as of Thursday, all displaced from their homes by thick smoke drifting down from wildfires burning in northern parts of the province. The evacuations were prompted by the significant health risk this smoke represents, and Environment Canada has issued special air quality statements for northeastern Alberta, all of Saskatchewan and all but the northeastern regions of Manitoba in response.

Despite this health risk, though, the thick smoke is actually having a beneficial impact on the very fires that are producing it in the first place.

“As much as it’s not good for people, because the cloud layer filled with smoke and is so thick, our temperatures are roughly 10 degrees cooler and our humidity is 10 to 15 per cent higher,” said Steve Roberts, Executive Director of Saskatchewan’s Wildfire Management Branch, according to the Canadian Press. “That combination means the fire activity drops significantly.”

“It’s helped us secure, especially, those fires that are close to communities by putting people on the ground and getting some hose lines in place.”

But, the smoke is a double-edged sword. Sometimes the reduced visibility grounds firefighting aircraft:

The video below of a wildfire in Saskatchewan is stunning. It appears that the photographer was quite close to a very, very active fire.

If your device can’t handle the video above, try it at this site.

To see the most current smoke reports on Wildfire Today, visit the articles tagged “smoke” at https://wildfiretoday.com/tag/smoke/

Saskatchewan replacing fire lookouts with cameras

Saskatchewan lookout tower
Saskatchewan lookout tower. CTV News

The Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment is phasing out fire lookout towers staffed with humans to detect fires and replacing them with cameras.

About 38 seasonal positions will be lost when the government switches to camera systems. The provincial government says the installation of the equipment, which should be operational by April of 2014,  will cost $1.5 million.

Environment Minister Ken Cheveldayoff says the switch will save money. However, he maintains the primary issue is safety.

“These towers are 80 to 90 feet high,” Cheveldayoff said Thursday. “There’s a safety issue if they’re single-manned that if something was to happen, if that individual was able to slip or something like that, it could be dire consequences.”

Saskatchewan lookout tower
Saskatchewan lookout tower. Photo by Government of Saskatchewan.