Four Nanaimo firefighters and two Nanaimo Fire Rescue fire trucks are on their way to help with the battle against wildfires in the B.C. Interior.
Karen Fry, acting Nanaimo fire chief, confirmed Thursday that Capt. Brian Mowatt and firefighters Chad Porter, Greg Finstad and Daryl Robson boarded a 12:15 p.m. ferry sailing to the Lower Mainland, with one fire engine and one four-wheel drive fire truck.
“We got the call last night and they left first thing this morning,” Fry said.
The four men are the first firefighters to join wildfire efforts and will be deployed with a task force in the central Okanagan area to protect buildings and property. They could also be tasked to battle interface fires where wilderness areas meet developed lands.
“We put out a call for individuals that were interested in responding and we had a huge feedback from our staff of people volunteering to go, so when we made the call last night, we started calling in order. I guess you could say and these were the first four that volunteered to leave on short notice,” Fry said.
The four will be in the Interior for minimum of eight days.
Four other city employees are already helping with the wildfire effort. Brad McRae, city chief operating officer, said more city employees are standing by to respond if the B.C. government calls.
“For standby obviously, it’s all those individuals that are trained in emergency operations,” McRae said. “So we have a multitude of staff trained in planning, engineering, finance, logistics and the [Emergency Operations Centre] directors, which would be Karen Lindsay and myself, so what the province needs, we’re going to do our best to provide.”
Fry said Nanaimo Fire Rescue has enough staff to maintain full service levels and the experienced gained by firefighters sent to the Interior is valuable.
“The experience these members are going to get helping with the province is probably going to provide value to the city when they return,” Fry said. “On a large event like this, it’s something we don’t necessarily address every day, but could potentially happen in our city.”
The province will reimburse the city for the costs of sending personnel and equipment to B.C.’s wildfires and more firefighters are standing by to rotate into the wildfire area should the province require them.
“We’re proud of them,” Fry said. “I was impressed that the moment you ask for help in supporting other communities in this provincial effort that’s going on, that hands went up without barely a question – that they’re willing to drop whatever they’re doing in their personal lives to go up there and help.”
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