Military continues to help with firefighting efforts

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/08/2021 (1776 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Since July 23, 120 military members from the 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry at CFB Shilo have been fighting fires in the province.

Six Canadian army medics have also been deployed to the 20-person military teams, said Lt.-Col. Jesse van Eijk, task force commander of Operation LENTUS and commanding officer of 2 PPCLI.

“It’s something we have the luxury here to provide that level of support.”

The number of wildfires Manitoba has experienced since the beginning of the year is well above the seasonal average and has resulted in more than 500,000 hectares burned. This has placed a considerable strain on local and provincial firefighting resources, a release from the province in July said.

On Wednesday, Canadian Armed Forces personnel officially completed their support in Gypsumville. The troops assigned to that area moved to the wildfire at Pinaymootang First Nation, a military spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said the areas troops are providing support are in Swan River/Cowan, which is 2,368 hectares, Sherridon (10,939 hectares), Easterville (383 hectares), Nopiming (5,100 hectares), Pinaymootang First Nation (20 hectares) and Sherridon/Cold Lake (331 hectares). 

“The Battalion, generally, hasn’t gotten overly involved in firefighting because the nature of domestic operations in Manitoba has been more involved in flood relief efforts across the province, van Eijk said.

However, training for firefighting with Battalion members involved Canadian Armed Forces firefighters based at CFB Shilo.

A full day of training in wildfire management took place before troops were sent to fight fires in the province, according to van Eijk.

“When they arrived at the fire sites, they linked in with the Manitoba Fire Services site managers or site leads and received further site specific training.”

On the ground, troops live in military tents at remote camps. Manitoba Wildfire Services has been fantastic in furnishing support for feeding, water, and transportation for all the military, van Eijk said.

“We’re providing some of the labour and they’re providing the support for those soldiers out on the line.”

The role of the military tasked with fighting fires in the province includes fire line patrols, direct support for Manitoba fire service crews with heavy equipment that pushes through cutlines in the woods, following behind and pulling out hose or running pumps or recovering pumps and hoses a little further, insuring equipment gets reconstituted and is available to the firefighters again, van Eijk explained. There are also baseline patrols of areas where fires were held or burned through, so there isn’t something underground that break out or flare up again, he said.

Contact back to base is in the form of satellite phones, twice a day, for situation reports. Each team is deployed with two satellite phones, allowing them to call the main number.

“They do call back to the Battalion here, to our command post, every day for a general situation update,” van Eijk said.

“They’re able to call back to their families, or their families can contact us at the command post and next time we have a touch point, we’ll make sure the message gets passed,” he said.

Daily conference calls via satellite phone occur to share information for weather conditions, and the outlook on the fires.

“We get a situation report from each one of those leaders on the ground.”

The expected end date is Aug. 10, but that’s under daily review.

“We will continue to do the job as long as we’re asked to,” van Eijk said. “If we’re asked for an extension, we will rotate people through and get them back to their families without spending an extended period of time away.”

» kkielley@brandonsun.com