ALBANY, NY (NEWS10) – Wildfires are still raging in Canada, burning over 9 million acres and bringing a large plume of smoke across the northeastern US. Smoke from these wildfires hung across the state for days.
While we are beginning to feel relief, New York State is now committed to helping fight the Quebec fires. Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that on June 8, 2023, rangers and firefighters will travel to Canada to help fight the wildfires, along with others from New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection said the 15 firefighters arriving on June 9, 2023 will be sent to the front lines.
“It could be what we call initial attack, where they are sent to a fire that isn’t already manned and they increase the initial size and start to engage and gain initial control of it,” he said Lt. said Scott Jackson, assistant fire safety officer. “Or it could be work on a fire that staff are already on hand to do and they will simply deploy additional staff to help fight the blaze.”
Once a line of control is established, they suppress burning material.
“You’re just going to edit the line of control to improve it, find things that are still burning on the edge of the fire, and just try to suppress that burning material,” Jackson said. “Either by starting a fire with a hose and pumping water into it, or by working on it with hand tools and burying it with earth to mix it up.”
Jackson said firefighters would be there for two weeks, working 12 to 16 hours a day to bring the fires under control.
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