The Parksville Qualicum Beach-area has a third local fire department being deployed to help fight the B.C. wildfires.
Dashwood Volunteer Fire Department got the call last week to go to Kelowna for the provincial staging area.
Fire chief Nick Acciavatti said the department is sending one water tender and two firefighters.
Acciavatti said he expects the fire department will have more than one eight-day rotation of firefighters. He said they have enough members to fill at least four rotations.
While this is new for the department’s firefighters, Acciavatti said he’s been deployed to help wildfires before including Barriere and Chase in 2003.
“I told them be prepared for the unexpected, really,” Acciavatti said. “We just feel that if we do our part to hep the province out and we know that we get it in return, we kind of feel that it’s our duty to help out when we can help out.”
Acciavatti said keep an eye on the Dashwood Facebook page, www.facebook.com/dashwoodvfd, and their Twitter, @dashwood6, for updates.
Crew filling up in Hope BC making the trek to Kelowna @HopeFireDept pic.twitter.com/NSOXBBtMq3
— Nick Acciavatti (@Dashwood6) August 3, 2017
On Wednesday, the Errington Volunteer Fire Department was also getting ready to be deployed, however the department has since been called off.
Jon Wilson, the Regional District of Nanaimo’s manager of emergency services, confirmed to The NEWS that Errington’s deployment had been called off.
“We’re dealing with a long weekend. We have extremely dry conditions here and we have to ensure that we have the appropriate resources in the area as well. We’re reviewing these requests on a case-by-case basis,” Wilson said.