B.C.’s firefighting budget has tripled so far this summer

WATCH ABOVE: The cooler, wetter weather is good news for crews battling forest fires around BC. Already the province has spent more than 3 times what was budgeted for this season. Tanya Beja reports.

VANCOUVER – B.C. has experienced one of the hottest and driest summers in recent years, and that has come at a cost.

The province has spent more than 180 million dollars fighting fires, which is three times what was originally budgeted.

Hundreds of crews were called in from around the country to help tackle the hotspots.

But the biggest expense was fighting fires from the air.

“One of the real important approaches to fire management is to hit them hard, hit them fast,” said Steve Thomson, Minister of Forests. “That takes that aircraft support and resources and that’s where the biggest part of the budget goes if you analyze where the costs have gone.”

– With files from Tanya Beja