VICTORIA — Another 100 Mexican combatientes de incendios forestales (wildfire-fighters) join the fight against the devastating fires raging across British Columbia, reinforcing crews already on the front lines as more than 20,000 people remain displaced and another 10,000 stay under evacuation alert.
The deployment is the fourth dispatch of Mexican personnel – also specialized in wildfire management – carried out by the Government of Mexico through the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) and the National Forestry Commission (Conafor). The new group consists of 102 people: 100 wildfire firefighters and 2 technical specialists.
The contingent includes men and women with extensive experience in wildfire suppression from Conafor, the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas (Conanp), state and municipal environmental agencies, Civil Protection authorities, rural fire-management brigades and civil society organizations.
This fourth mobilization adds to the previous three deployments that have already brought more than 300 Mexican firefighters and technical personnel to Canada. They are operating both in Ontario — where they are supporting wildfire suppression and control efforts in the Rinker Lake and Dryden complexes as well as the Atikokan area — and in British Columbia, first in Abbotsford and then in the Fraser Canyon and Thompson/Okanagan regions.
“The Government of Mexico reaffirms its commitment to international cooperation, the protection of forest ecosystems and the strengthening of the technical capacities needed to address wildfire emergencies,” the official statement published on the Mexican government’s website said (here the full press release).
Mexico’s response stands in sharp contrast to that of Canada’s North American neighbor, the United States under President Donald Trump, which has repeatedly threatened new tariffs on Canada because wildfire smoke is drifting into the United States and worsening air quality there. But the U.S. position appears increasingly isolated, as Canada has already received reinforcements from countries as distant as Australia and New Zealand, with additional international assistance on the way: on X (Twitter – here below), today, B.C. Minister of Forests Ravi Parmar announced that 102 firefighters from Costa Rica are expected to arrive on August 13.
As of this writing, British Columbia has 101 active wildfires, according to real-time data from the BC Wildfire Service (here), 46 of them out of control. The most dangerous remains the Bald Range wildfire, which now covers nearly 156 square kilometers (15,600 hectares) in the Okanagan region. The blaze caused the death of an 80-year-old woman, who died in Meadow Valley, west of Summerland, while trying to escape.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has opened a criminal investigation to determine the Bald Range fire’s origin. In a statement posted on its website (here), the Penticton South Okanagan Similkameen Regional RCMP Detachment asked for the public’s help in identifying any suspicious activity in the area of Princeton-Summerland Road and Bathville Road, near and within the Crump and Trout Creek recreation sites, that may have contributed to the ignition of the fire on Friday, Aug. 7.
Investigators are urging potential witnesses to come forward and are seeking any video footage or photographs taken by people who were in those areas last Friday. “Digital footage, videos and photos can be submitted by email at baldrangereporting@rcmp-grc.gc.ca” the RCMP wrote in the press release.
In the pic at the top of the article: the fourth group of Mexican firefighters sent by the Government of Mexico to Canada to help battle the wildfires (Gobierno de Mexico — www.gob.mx)
