For Release: June 16, 2023 Contact: Jennifer Myslivy

Public Affairs Specialist 

jmyslivy@blm.gov

208-789-6181

U.S. supports Canada with aviation resources

Boise, Idaho – As wildfires continue to burn in Canada, the U.S. is sending additional U.S. 

Department of the Interior (DOI), USDA Forest Services (USFS), and state wildland firefighting 

and support personnel to assist with ongoing wildfire suppression efforts in Canada. With increased

fire activity across the provinces, multiple requests for resources from the Canadian Interagency 

Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) are being filled for Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and 

Quebec. Resources include hand crews, incident management teams, fireline leadership positions, 

and various aviation assets. 

Aviation assets have now been requested, including airtankers and smokejumpers. Through the 

Northwest and Great Lakes Compacts, with Alaska, Washington, and Minnesota, three airtankers in 

Alberta and three fire bosses (scooping single engine air tankers) in Ontario are assisting ground 

resources with fire suppression efforts. Additionally, the Bureau of Land Management and USFS

are sending two aircraft, four spotters, and 36 smokejumpers to assist with fire suppression efforts in 

British Columbia.

“We’re proud of our personnel for continuing to step up and make themselves available for 

assignment in Canada,” said Dave Haston, National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group (NMAC) 

representative for the U.S. Forest Service. “The NMAC will continue to respond promptly to 

Canadian requests for additional fire suppression resources and provide critical support during this 

current period of relatively light fire activity in the U.S.”

Since May 8, the U.S. has mobilized a total of 839 personnel to Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, 

Quebec and the CIFFC, which includes: 36 fire suppression crews (677 personnel), 77 individual

overhead, and six incident management teams (84 personnel).

 
Current U.S. resources assigned to Canadian incidents (includes federal and state compact resources)

as of June 16, 2023:

Airtankers Crews Individual 

Overhead

Incident 

Mngt. 

Teams

Smokejumpers

and Pilots

Total 

Personnel

Alberta 3 12 14 1 284

British 

Columbia

43 43

Nova 

Scotia

1 17

Ontario 3 3

Quebec 6 5 1 121

Totals 6 19 19 2 43 468

A new NIFC International Support webpage at https://www.nifc.gov/fire-information/internationalsupport will be updated weekly (by Friday morning) with resource and personnel numbers. 

Additional information will be shared on the NIFC Facebook at 

https://www.facebook.com/NIFCFire/ and Twitter at https://twitter.com/NIFC_Fire. 

As smoke from Canadian wildfires continues to impact various areas in the U.S., air quality 

information about wildfire smoke can be found on AirNow athttps://www.airnow.gov/wildfires/.

For the most current information concerning the wildfires burning in Canada, please visit the 

CIFFC website at https://ciffc.net/.

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The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), located in Boise, Idaho, is the nation's support center for 

wildland firefighting. Eight different agencies and organizations are part of NIFC including, the Bureau of 

Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service,

USDA Forest Service, National Weather Service, U.S. Fire Administration, 

and the National Association of State Foresters.