THUNDER BAY — More than 100 firefighters from Mexico are preparing for deployment to wildfires in Northern Ontario.
Since arriving in Thunder Bay on Monday, the Mexican crews have been undergoing training with Ontario's firefighting equipment and receiving briefings on the types of trees and terrain they can expect to encounter here.
Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry fire information officer Chris Marchand said some of them will be sent to fight fires in the Northwest region while others will be assigned to Northeastern Ontario, "wherever they are needed the most."
As of Tuesday evening, there were 32 active fires in Northwestern Ontario.
Marchand said these include some fairly large blazes in the Nipigon, Sioux Lookout and Red Lake districts.
"There are certainly some fires where we would like to have more manpower on in the coming days."
The Mexicans could remain in Ontario for two deployments of two weeks each, or a total of about a month on the fire lines.
Arrangements for help from Mexico were completed by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, which has resource-sharing agreements with various countries.
When the number and size of forest fires outmatches the firefighting capabilities of provinces and territories, their governments may request CIFFC to access firefighters, equipment or aircraft from foreign partners.
So far this year, Ontario has seen 279 confirmed wildfires, about the same number as last year's entire fire season.
Over 120,000 hectares of forest has burned so far, in sharp contrast to only 2,560 hectares that were burned last year through the whole season.
The wildfire hazard rating in most of Northern Ontario is currently extreme, and the Restricted Fire Zone that was declared across the region at the beginning of the month remains in effect until further notice.
