As the base of operations for the Prince George Fire Centre, a vast area of northeastern B.C. that extends to the Yukon border, Prince George Airport is serving as a staging area for aircraft directly involved in fighting fires and for the past three months the fires have caused a notable uptick in flights at YXS.
“Unfortunately, it’s been going on since early May,“ said Prince George Airport Authority chief executive officer Gordon Duke.
The numbers vary from day to day but a snapshot of wildfire-related flights in and out of the city on Tuesday showed 10 firefighting helicopters, one fixed-wing patrol craft, one tanker group (one birddog and two land-based tankers) and two military transport helicopters.
A Canadian Armed Forces Hercules carrying 104 firefighters from Brazil landed over the weekend at the airport, which served as a marshalling stop for that group, which was deployed to the Cariboo Fire Centre.
“Every year the forestry service has a certain number of aircraft and staff that are stationed here and depending on the need, that’s augmented where they’ll fly aircraft and staff in from other bases to operate here,” said Duke. “Certainly this summer has been the busiest we’ve been in a number of summers. It’s global effort when you get in these kind of situations.
“I can’t imagine the fatigue and the danger that those folks are in every day when they’re doing their job. When you think about, our fire season starts in mid-July but we’ve been in it for 2 ½ months, there’s a lot of fatigue factor.”
Prince George is a hub for wildfire fighting activities as well as a hub for evacuations and the city is prepared to deal with orders that force people from their homes, using a reception area at the Kin Centre to register evacuees and distribute vouchers for hotel accommodations and meals.
“It’s something that Prince George does very well and has experience from it from past years,” said Duke.
