Military sends extra help for exhausted police officers dealing with B.C. fires
KAMLOOPS, B.C. — Hundreds of Canadian Armed Forces members will support the police response to devastating wildfires in British Columbia, bringing some relief to scores of exhausted officers on the ground.
About 225 soldiers travelled on Thursday from CFB Edmonton to Williams Lake, where they will assist the RCMP with observation and reporting along access roads, help with evacuations of people in distress and assist in delivery of aid.
Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said he was grateful the federal government had responded to B.C.’s request to provide the military members in order to free up local police.
“I’m pleased that they have acted as quickly as they have done in terms of recognizing the pressure that not only the people fighting the fires are under, but also the RCMP and policing forces,” he told reporters in Kamloops.