Alberta fires: B.C. sends 37 wildfire service personnel to help fight

As wildfires in Alberta continue to keep tens of thousands of people out of their homes, British Columbia has deployed dozens of firefighters to help with the response there.

As of Monday afternoon, 37 BC Wildfire Service personnel had been deployed to Alberta, according to a wildfire service spokesperson.

Thirty-six personnel arrived over the weekend, and one person was scheduled to arrive on Monday.

Among the B.C. crews dispatched to the neighbouring province was a 16-person incident management team, which the spokesperson said would be assuming command of the Pembina Complex, which covers the Edson and Rocky Mountain House Forest Area.

The B.C. crews also include 19 structure protection personnel, one structure protection specialist and one ignition specialist, according to the BCWS.

The deployment comes as B.C. deals with its own out-of-control wildfires in the northern part of the province.

As of Monday, there were 88 properties on evacuation order because of the Red Creek and Boundary Lake fires burning on either side of the City of Fort St. John.

Additionally, nearly 500 properties were on evacuation alert.

Overall, however, the wildfire situation in B.C. was much less severe than that of Alberta on Monday.

While there were 62 fires actively burning in B.C., 91 per cent of those were under control or being held.

"At this time, we are feeling pretty comfortable about where our capacity is," said Bowinn Ma, B.C.'s minister of emergency management and climate readiness, at a news conference Monday.

"In fact, that is why we felt comfortable sending a team from the BC Wildfire Service over to support Alberta with their wildfires," Ma added. "We have been relatively fortunate, so far, on the wildfire front. That isn't to say, of course, that communities haven't been impacted, but at this time, we're feeling pretty comfortable."