A battalion of nearly 350 firefighters from the European Union will soon be on the ground in Quebec to help the teams already hard at work fighting the forest fires at this devastating and unprecedented start to the season.
A hundred French firefighters arrived on Quebec soil last Thursday. They spent the entire weekend putting out flames in the province, where blazes have forced nearly 14,000 people to flee their homes.
On Wednesday, 140 other firefighters from Portugal and 97 from Spain are due to arrive in Quebec, said the spokesperson for the European Union Emergency Response Coordination Center in Canada, Claire Kowalewski.
This is the first time in its 22-year history that the center has sent firefighters to help fight the blazes in Canada, Kowalewski said.
“We stand together in these difficult times,” she said. This year, unfortunately, it is Canada that is grappling with these terrible fires. But last year, it was in Spain that the situation was extremely difficult. »
Even if they don’t speak the same language or use the same techniques, the firefighters always end up understanding each other, according to Ms. Kowalewski, since at the end of the day, “they all have the same objective”.
In addition to European firefighters, 100 other firefighters and a major fire management team of 19 people will arrive from the United States Tuesday and Wednesday in Quebec, according to the Society for the Protection of Forests against Fire. They will notably go to Lebel-sur-Quévillon.
At home, authorities have spoken of an “unprecedented” start to the fire season. As of Sunday, nearly 430 wildfires were still raging from coast to coast, 210 of which were out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Wildfire Center.
Evacuations have also been numerous: more than 100,000 people in nine provinces and territories have been forced from their homes due to blazes that have endangered several communities and municipalities.
And with hot, dry conditions expected in nearly every province, the fight against the blazes could continue all summer.
Quieter start to the season in Europe
Ms Kowalewski is an officer for the fire brigade in France, but she was reassigned to the European Union’s emergency coordination center to manage the crisis. From the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center in Winnipeg, she oversees all logistics surrounding European firefighters.
Canada sent an official request for help last Wednesday, which triggered the European Union’s Civil Protection Protocol, she said. This request was forwarded to 36 member jurisdictions.
Firefighters from France, Portugal and Spain therefore raised their hands to help. The forest fire season has not yet started in these countries, which has allowed firefighters to be deployed to Canada.
“They are really proud to come here,” said Ms. Kowalewski. They will remain in the field until their services are no longer required, or until they are urgently repatriated to Europe if the situation deteriorates.
According to Ms. Kowalewski, all the French firefighters were very well received by their Quebec counterparts.
“The firefighters tell us that relations with their Canadian colleagues are very good and that, really, everything is fine,” she said.
Sunday, this feeling was shared by the Quebec Minister of Natural Resources and Forests, Maïté Blanchette Vézina, who argued in a press briefing that firefighters had begun to tackle a fire threatening the Atikamekw community of Obedjiwan thanks, in part, with the help of fire crews from other jurisdictions, including that of France.
Mrs. Kowalewski was happy to hear it. “I hope the Portuguese and the Spanish will also give a lot of support,” she concluded.