Military personnel heading home as deployment on B.C. wildfires comes to an end

Hundreds of Canadian Armed Forces personnel will leave British Columbia as the province’s wildfire situation continues to show signs of improvement.

Members of Canadian Armed Forces were deployed earlier this summer to assist during B.C.’s wildfire season.

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Military personnel and aircraft helped with transport of fire crews and equipment, and firefighting activities, the province said, as well as played a significant role in the responses to the Thomas Creek, Flat Lake and White Rock Lake fires.

About 300 personnel from the Canadian Armed Forces’ Land Task Force and 55 personnel from the Air Task Force were assigned to the wildfires, with about 625 people cycling through as part of efforts to help with B.C.’s wildfire response.

There have been more than 1,500 wildfires reported in B.C. this year. The province said that while there are still more than 200 fires burning, fire conditions and weather have improved dramatically in recent days.

“Given the current fire situation, we have sufficient resources in place to respond appropriately to current wildfire activity,” the province said.