BC Wildfire Service senior management team headed to L.A. fires ‘imminently’

Jan 10, 2025

B.C. Premier David Eby, right, listens to Brad Litke, a BC Wildfire Service senior operations officer, while viewing areas of the Shuswap affected by the Bush Creek East wildfire, on a helicopter flight from Kamloops to Salmon Arm on September 11, 2024.

The BC Wildfire Service is deploying a senior management team to help fight the Los Angeles wildfires, at the request of California fire officials. Premier David Eby confirmed the deployment in a post to social media on Friday, adding the team would be “departing imminently.”

“We’re also working to send ground crews as part of a national response,” Eby said. “California has been there for us, we will be there for them. That’s what good neighbours do.”

In a Thursday email, B.C. Forests Minister Ravi Parmar said Cal Fire had reached out directly to B.C. to ask for senior-level expertise.

Earlier Friday, federal Defence Minister Bill Blair said Canada would deploy Royal Canadian Air Force assets to help with the firefight.

Emergency Preparedness Minister Harjit Sajjan has also said Ontario, Quebec and Alberta would deploy 250 firefighters, aircraft equipment and other resources to California.

Aircraft from B.C. and Quebec are already assisting U.S. crews. One of the Quebec water bombers was grounded on Thursday after it struck a drone illegally flying in the fire zone. Firefighters have been battling raging fires for several days now, with the flames killing 10 people.

At least 10,000 homes are estimated to have burned, while more than 153,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. Costs from the disaster are estimated at US$50 billion.

(Source: Global News, Simon Little with files from Sean Prevail and Uday Rana. Video/Global News. Photo/The Canadian Press, Darryl Dyck)

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