The Prince George Fire Centre is being bolstered with three new initial attack crews ahead of this year's wildfire season.
One crew will be stationed in Prince George, while two other para-attack crews will be stationed at bases in either Mackenzie or Fort St. John.
Each crew is comprised of three people, and the para-attack crews are especially critical to getting to remote fires that are difficult to access by vehicle.
Those crews are deployed to wherever they are needed in the province, and up to four crews can load onto a plane and jump into four different fires.
"The bottom line is there's more support for para-attack," said Amanda Reynolds, a fire information officer with the BC Wildfire Service.
"That's so key for the more remote areas we can't get to quickly with vehicles."
The province increased its wildfire budget to $101 million this year to spend more on fire fighting and prevention.
There were 452 wildfires recorded last year in the Prince George Fire Centre, which includes Northeast B.C.
The fires burned nearly 157,000 hectares of land and forest in the region.
The fire season in the Northeast last year began in earnest at the start of May, when a fire started along the Peace River in the Site C construction zone.
It peaked later in the month when a pair of wildfires near Tommy Lakes combined and grew more than 20,000 hectares.
The Wildfire Service is monitoring for hot spots from "overwintering" fires that could reignite from last season with the warmer, dry weather, Reynolds said. Firefighter boot camps will run in April and May in Kamloops.
In the meantime, the public is being encouraged to prepare for wildfire season, in particular their homes. That includes moving fire fuels and other combustibles away from the house, and making sure to properly register any burning.
Fires don't come through communities like a tsunami, but rather start from embers that are blowing in the wind and catch fire after landing on a fuel source, Reynolds said.
"We're really trying to encourage the public they need to start thinking about that," Reynolds said.
The weather for April is expected to be warm, with no significant rain yet in the forecast.
"People really need to start getting prepared," Reynolds said.
To report a wildfire, unattended campfire, or open burning violation, call 1-800-663-5555, or *5555 on a cellphone.
