A longtime Kelowna firefighter spent Wednesday training a new batch of recruits.
Come Saturday, though, his focus — and location — will shift dramatically.
Larry Keating says he and two other colleagues will be travelling to fire-ravaged areas near Fort St. John to relieve three other Kelowna firefighters.
An evacuation alert issued for Fort St. John was rescinded on Wednesday morning, and the wildfire that triggered it is still deemed to be burning out of control.
There are now four fires in the area making up the North Peace Fire Complex.
“We’ll be doing some structure protection, as well as basically patrols to make sure that the fire hasn’t encroached into the city limits and or any of the properties or outlying areas,” Keating told Global News. “So that’s that’s our task.”
Along with sending three members north, the fire department is also dispatching one of its trucks.
“We look to our crews to see if we have crews who are available to go and are willing to go up for that period of time. They have to deploy for 14 days,” said Dwight Seymour, deputy fire chief with the Kelowna Fire Department (KFD).
In addition to Kelowna firefighters, three members from Lake Country and Peachland’s fire chief are also lending helping hands.
Lake Country is also sending up a command truck and a water tender, while Peachland is also lending a command truck.
Seymour said local support is part of an interagency agreement with B.C.’s Wildfire Service.
“We’re asked, as a membership, whether we have the ability or the time to go up. And, of course, we try and give back to the community,” Seymour said.
“So yeah, we’re willing to go up there and try and make this situation a little better for those folks out there.”
He added that willingness to help is usually very high.
“That’s why we get into this job; to help the public and help others. This is just another example of that,” Seymour said.
“So when we ask our guys, we usually get more who are willing to go than what we actually are allowed to send, because they all want to help and help another community.”
Kelowna firefighters know all too well how critical support is during fire season.
Seymour pointed to the 2003 Okanagan Mountain fire that devastated Kelowna, and the help that the city received.
“We had apparatus and firefighters from across B.C. coming to help us,” Seymour said.
“We now want to make sure that we’re paying it forward and that we’re doing the same thing because tomorrow could be when we’re asking for resources to come here.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by Keating, who leaves for the firefront on Saturday.
“It’s the right thing to do,” he said.
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