A small office in Winnipeg’s St. James area serves as the mission control for all firefighting efforts across the country. Staff at the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) monitor a wall of computer screens showing weather, heat, and drought levels across Canada.
“It helps us understand where the hotspots are throughout the country and where we might be anticipating having to send resources,” says CIFFC communications officer Marieke deRoos.
CIFFC coordinates where to send firefighters, equipment, and aircraft — a major undertaking in a fire year as severe as this one.
“Right now, we are at a National Preparedness Level of 5, which is our most heightened level of risk,” deRoos says. “So, that means that all resources in our partner agencies have been put to use at the moment, and we have requested international help.”
Staff are constantly on the phone and in meetings with their partner agencies from all provinces and territories except Nunavut, and international agencies. CIFFC has bilateral partnerships with the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Costa Rica and South Africa, and can call upon them for help when it is needed. But this year, to help fight the out-of-control fires in Alberta, the centre had to call upon new partners, including Chile, France, Spain, and Portugal.
Through speaking with their partners on an almost hourly basis, staff figure out where resources are needed the most. The level of response is determined by what is under threat. Every partner agency’s priority is to protect what it calls “assets,” meaning homes, communities, and infrastructure — so if a fire is in a remote location, it’s often left to burn.
“Fire is a natural phenomenon that takes place, and it’s important to let them go sometimes in order for the forest to regenerate,” deRoos says. “And for that reason, although we’re seeing a lot of fire activity and communities have been affected, we are not in a crisis situation when it comes to resource availability.”
But even though firefighters have all the support they need from all over the world, the upward trend in the number of fires recently remains very concerning to staff.
“Looking at a 20-year trend, fire seasons are typically starting earlier and becoming a lot more intense,” deRoos says.
Data from CIFFC shows 2023 is the most severe year for wildfires on record, with over 7.5 million hectares burned so far. That surpasses the previous record set in 1995, when just over 7.1 million hectares burned.
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