Nova Scotia Helps Fight Ontario Fires

Nova Scotia is sending a 21 member wildfire fighting crew to help battle blazes in the forests of northern Ontario.

The Department of Natural Resources is responding to a request received through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre to help control and extinguish the Ontario fires.

"Our crews are well trained, dedicated, and eager to represent Nova Scotia's commitment of assistance to help a fellow province in a time of need," said Charlie Parker, Minister of Natural Resources.

"Our province has had a much quieter fire season than some others so our staff are able to offer this assistance and use the opportunity to further test their skills and training."

Nova Scotia is a member of the Canadian Mutual Aid Resource Sharing Agreement, established in the early 1980s, which ensures all provinces and territories will receive help if forest fires become too big for them to handle.

The firefighters will leave Halifax Thursday, July 28. They will go first to Thunder Bay for a day long briefing and then be deployed to Northern Ontario.

The crews will be working 12 hour shifts in remote places reachable only by helicopter and living in tents, with limited facilities.

They are expected to return to Nova Scotia in two weeks. Nova Scotia sent two firefighting crews to Alberta earlier this season.