2nd crew of B.C. wildland firefighters en route to Los Angeles

On Monday afternoon, a team of 23 personnel from the B.C. Wildfire Service boarded a flight from Vancouver to Los Angeles to help battle several out-of-control fires that have left dozens dead and 12,000 structures destroyed.

It’s the second crew from B.C. to make the trip to California. The first team of 12 incident management personnel arrived on Saturday, at the request of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The crew that will arrive Monday was requested by the U.S. Forest Service.

“They might work directly with the U.S. Forest Service on fires that they're managing, they might end up working under Cal Fire, which has jurisdiction on the Palisades fire,” said Forrest Tower with the B.C. Wildfire Service. “So I'm not sure right now exactly what their assignment will be, but they'll be doing the same thing that they would do in B.C. in terms of providing firefighting support on whatever incident that they're assigned to.”

B.C. crews are there to help, but they’re also in Los Angles to learn about fighting large interface fires.

“They're going to work alongside all of the American personnel that (usually have) more experience in terms of this urban interface fire, and can bring that back to B.C. so we can increase our expertise in areas where we just might not get as many opportunities to learn about those types of things,” said Tower.

B.C. is able to spare dozens of experienced wildland firefighting personnel during the winter because of a recent focus on hiring year-round staff.

“A large number off our positions, we have been working on making them full-time,” said Tower “It's been part of … our increased readiness for not only wildfires, but other hazards that can occur in B.C.”

But the BCWS has to be careful its crews don’t suffer from burnout by early year deployments in other countries.

“That's something we've learned in in the past in sending folks to Australia,” said Tower. “If they already have two or three weeks of deployment, hard-working days, and then we have an early fire season, say, in April or May, it just it increases that risk of injury and body stress, all that kind of stuff if we are working them starting in January.”

The two B.C. crews are expected to be on the ground in Los Angeles for two weeks.