‘We try to help each other’: Alberta Wildfire sends nearly 100 firefighters to northern Ontario

As of Friday afternoon, there are 94 Alberta firefighters helping efforts to contain wildfires in northern Ontario.

As of Friday afternoon, there are 94 Alberta firefighters helping efforts to contain wildfires in northern Ontario. That province currently has about 190 active wildfires , half of which are considered out-of-control. Alberta is only dealing with about 18 wildfires after heavy rainfall soaked large portions of the province.

Alberta Wildfire information officer Derrick Forsythe says inter-provincial communication and resource sharing is common in emergent situations. “If you remember back two or three years, when we were super busy here in Alberta, we had crews coming in from Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, P.E.I. ... Across the country, really.

And that’s the way the wildfire community works,” he told CTV News Edmonton on Wednesday. He said Alberta’s slow start to wildfire season has freed up resources for the time being. Crews are expected to stay in Ontario for two weeks.

More support could be sent if Ontario is still in trouble after that time, Forsythe added. “That’s kind of the way things work. We try to help each other out as much as we can without leaving ourselves short at home.”

At home, crews are seeing typical conditions ramp up as warm weather moves in. The northwest corner of the province, which didn’t see the same rain as parts of central and east-central Alberta, has fires popping up already, Forsythe said. He suggests staying wary of those dryer conditions when out in the forests: don’t park recreational vehicles in tall grass, for example, and make sure fire coals are cooled off completely.

“The one thing that heartens me about this is that Albertans are getting it. There’s no question that there’s an increased awareness and understanding of the dangers and risks on the landscape.”