Our firefighters in the reinforcement in the West

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Firefighters from the SOPFEU had been made in Alberta in the last year to help fight the major forest fires that ravaged the city of Fort McMurray.

Vincent Larin

Sunday, 16 July 2017 21:19

UPDATE
Sunday, 16 July 2017 21:19

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Forty firefighters forest of Quebec will go to lend a hand to their colleagues from British Columbia to fight the major forest fires that affect the province of the West.

The spring and the rainy summer that Québec is currently experiencing have at least a positive point : we have never had so little of forest fires for 30 years. The situation allows the firefighter québec forest to go help fight the fires that raged in central British Columbia.

“This year is the smallest year that we have known for 30 years,” confirms the spokesperson of the Society for the protection of forests against fire (SOPFEU), Catherine Morency.

Since the beginning of the year, firefighters of the SOPFEU are occurring 131 times for forest fires, whereas the average of the last 10 years is 341 at the same time.

Thousands evacuated

The SOPFEU will send a delegation of 42 firefighters forest to lend a helping hand to the authorities of British Columbia.

Thousands of people had to be evacuated during the end of the week. Strong winds fanned forest fires that raged for more than a week.

The progression of the flames is so intense that it has forced the authorities to take new measures of evacuation, the main one for the city of Williams Lake, with some 11 000 inhabitants.

In Quebec

“The request that we had received this week was for the shipment of motor-pumps. We sent 200 motor pumps for fighting forest fires on Wednesday. They arrived Saturday in British Columbia, ” said Catherine Morency.

The fire department of Quebec will therefore be added to this device already in place to fight the flames.

Despite the rather calm in the Quebec forest firefighters remain busy. “During the free time, there are training to the task,” says Catherine Morency.

Several of them have been deployed in the field at the end of the week, as the risk of a forest fire was up because of the beautiful weather.

– With the QMI Agency