Minnesota and Canada share much more than a border.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will be sending firefighters to help battle flames in British Columbia; sending ten firefighters who will join firefighters from Wisconsin and Michigan as well to work on three, 20-member crews. Firefighters from the neighboring province of Ontario will be on hand as well to fill in crew vacancies.
This is all a result of the Great Lakes Forest Fire Compact (GLFFC). The GLFFC is an agreement between Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin, and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba created for the promotion of “effective prevention, pre-suppression and forest fire control in the Great Lakes region of the United States and adjacent areas of Canada.”
Ultimately, it’s a partnership created so that different regions can share ideas, technology, tools, personnel and resources to more effectively combat forest fires and other natural disasters in an area dominated by greenspace. Equipment is shared most commonly.
Minnesota Incident Command Systems coordinator Rebekah Luedtke had this to say about the interagency help to British Columbia:
“Helping fight fires in British Columbia is a great opportunity for Minnesota wildland firefighters to learn new procedures, form new partnerships and see new country. This will benefit Minnesota by providing training and experience that can be used at home.”
Fires have been breaking out consistently on the West Coast. The conditions have been ideal: Dry timber and humid conditions. BC requested the help of the partnership after suffering personnel shortages as the fires continued to rage.
The firefighters have already begun their 14 day commitment in British Columbia. They began their journey on July 25th at the Interagency Fire Center in Grand Rapids, Minnesota before leaving for Dryden, Ontario for briefing. From there, the firefighters were flown to British Columbia to reach their staging grounds in Kamloops.
The firefighters have not yet been assigned to a specific fire.
More information can be found in this Minnesota DNR press release.
More information on the GLFCC: www.glffc.com.
