Once again, Clearwater Regional Fire Rescue Services has been asked to help battle the raging wildfires in British Columbia.

The Clearwater team serves Clearwater county, the town of Rocky Mountain House, and the Village of Caroline. Regional fire chief Steven Debienne says they were able to deploy some of the crew without harming their operations in the county.    

“So in this case, the phone call came in asking for the assistance and we quickly preformed a risk assessment which includes evaluating our fire industry, evaluating the forecast, evaluating that man power to see what we’ve got for resources available for our staffing and taking a look at what our current hazards are and taking a look at what we’ve been forecasted with and projected with and make the decision based on that.”

He said that the request from the Alberta office of the fire commissioner is a voluntary request and you are able to respond and not to reduce the number of resources in your municipality. He explains that it is important for them to help out when they can because in the future they might be the ones asking for help.

“Were helping our neighbours in a time of need and we know that if it happened to us our neighbours would be here to help us.”

That’s not the only reason.

“The history shows that it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when a wild fire is going to affect our citizens.”

According to the British Columbia government website, there are over 1,890 fires currently, with over 577,000 hectares of land already burned which explains the need for more help.

The request was received by them on August 10 and that day a crew of four members, a command unit and a structure protection trailer was deployed.

Debienne says the crew was made up of members from different stations and they will mostly help to keep properties from burning down. Those who were deployed will be on a 7 day rotation.

He adds, “firefighting is a different occupation, it’s about the community, it’s about helping people, and whether it be our communities other communities or other countries, it’s about helping people, it’s about helping the public, it’s a mindset and fire fighters are all about helping each other, and helping the public.”