“These fires are some of the worst we have tackled.”
That’s from Iverson Forest Management Fire Coordinator and General Manager Dayton Gilmore who told Vista Radio their group based out of Duncan on Vancouver Island has been deployed five times to the Prince George Fire Centre since May.
In an interview, Gilmore stated they are also able to draw on local resources here to avoid any burnout scenarios.
“A full deployment would be 14 days, that is what the Ministry allows us to work and then we do a reset after that. We have an office in Prince George so we have fire crews based there which are Type 3 five-pack fire crews and then we have Type 2 interzone crews as well.”
Due to the large number of hectares burned, crews from Mexico, Australia, and the United States have been called in to assist in the Prince George Fire Centre – something Gilmore says is a unique aspect of the job.
“It’s a giant brotherhood and sisterhood out there. We all learn from each other and every zone, every country, and every place brings on new techniques and strategies that we put into our toolbox and so working with the export firefighters is great.”
“At Iverson, we are also international as well – we work in Australia and have contracts in Chile, South Africa and the Yukon and so we are spread out in other countries as well. A lot of them are crew members that we previously worked with too outside of Canada, which is nice.”
Gilmore added the wildfires that do occur out on Vancouver Island have lot a less sting than in the north – much of that has to do with terrain and other ecological factors.
“On Vancouver Island, we have old-growth forests and we are very fortunate we don’t often have large fires. They are usually fires that are usually put out within a week and stay well within 100 hectares and maybe go from rank one to two with very minimal fire behaviour.”
“It is way more aggressive in Prince George, the fuels, the trees and stability are a lot more dangerous as well due to the species and their rooting platforms. There are a lot more challenges for us to fight fire there but we love it.”
Iverson will be offering their services until the fire season wraps up. From there, they will be on standby for any other events like flooding or reforestation.
Province-wide, there are 386 wildfires currently burning with 166 located in the PG Fire Centre.
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