B.C. requests more wildfire resources, continues to assess situation: minister

B.C. has reached out to the federal government for more resources to help fight out-of-control wildfires across the province.

Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma announced Thursday that she has been in talks with her federal counterpart, Bill Blair, about bringing more equipment and people to B.C.

Ma says B.C. has requested up to an additional 1,000 firefighting personnel to help with its efforts.

“I have spoken with Minister Bill Blair, and we’re optimistic our request will secure additional resources for our province,” she said.

“The BC Wildfire Service has also contracted additional air support capacity in recent days. We are continuously assessing the situation across the province closely and we will not hesitate to take action to keep people and communities safe.”

An incident management team from Australia will be arriving in the province on July 15 to support the approximately 160 international personnel from Mexico and the United States who are already working alongside BC Wildfire Service.

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“Under the Wildfire Act, the province has access to all of the tools needed to coordinate provincial and international resources to suppress wildfires. We continue to work with the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre to bring in additional out-of-province resources,” Ma explained.

She adds the province may assess the need for a provincial state of emergency.

“We have not yet needed these powers province-wide, but we will continue to ensure that we have all of the tools we need at our disposal to keep people and community safe,” Ma said.