Vernon Military Camp (File photo/Vernon Matters Staff)

By Pete McIntyre

Extra resources

Military staging in Vernon before heading to fire lines

Jul 22, 2021 | 5:00 PM

You may see members of the Canadian military in Vernon this week, but they won’t be here for long.

The BC Wildfire Service says up to 250 Canadian Armed Forces personnel are staging at the Vernon Military Camp as they prepare to join the effort to fight wildfires around B.C.

“The intent is for them to be assigned to the fire lines over the next couple of days,” Ian Meier, Executive Director of the BC Wildfire Service, told a news conference. “They have been trained in fire line work and the military is working with us to increase that level of training.”

In addition, Premier John Horgan said Wednesday, about 100 firefighters from Mexico will join the fire lines this weekend.

There are about 30 fewer fires in B.C. today, with the number now at 267 as of 4:00 p.m. July 22.

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RCMP have been providing roving patrols of B.C. areas evacuated due to wildfires, and so far, there hasn’t been any issues with crime.

“We’ve had no examples of property theft or theft in any of the areas subject to evacuation orders or alerts. We are doing 24-7 patrols of those areas,” said Dawn Roberts, RCMP spokesperson.

Roberts said another benefit of the 24-7 patrols of evacuated areas is that police officers have spotted new fires and called them in to allow for a quick response.