BCWS unit based in Vernon in preparation for wildfire season

May 8, 2025 | 3:20 PM

The provincial firefighting agency has a unit on standby in Vernon in case a wildfire breaks out.

The B.C. Wildfire Service (BCWS) said the Firestalkers Unit Crew will be based out of Vernon this year.

The Firestalkers Unit consists of 22 members, including four Crew Leaders, a Deputy Crew Supervisor, a Unit Crew Supervisor, and at leas one member with an advance first aid certification.

“Unit crews will typically be deployed by ground, each equipped with the tools and resources they need on the fire line. However, crews can also be moved using aerial resources as needed,” BCWS stated in a release.

“Suppression tactics that Unit Crews can and often conduct are establishing water access and pump and hose line for water delivery, mop up, planned ignition operations, and guard construction. Guard construction can either be done by hand or with the assistance of heavy equipment. Crews will work to fully extinguish hotspots and mop up from the fires’ edge, working inward from the fire perimeter.”

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Crews will respond to fires using either a Direct Attack method, where control lines are established adjacent to the fire, or using the Parallel Attack model, where control lines are established near the fires edge while leaving fuel between the control line to be burned off.

Though based in Vernon, the crew is a provincial resource and may be deployed elsewhere to provide assistance on larger incidents.

The Firestalkers Crew is one of 30 units stationed across the province, and one of seven located in the Kamloops Fire Centre. The BCWS said there was one based in Kamloops, two in Merritt, one in Princeton, one in Lillooet, and one in Lytton.

by Liam Verster

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