Over the next few days, several hundred firefighters and relief workers are expected to support SOPFEU in fighting the numerous forest fires that are still not under control throughout Quebec.
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This was confirmed to LCN on Saturday by SOPFEU’s prevention and communication coordinator, Stéphane Caron.
“There are multiple fires that are threatening multiple small communities,” he said.
The long-awaited arrival of these reinforcements will take several days but will begin on Sunday with the deployment of 100 Canadian Forces soldiers who will be trained to become forest firefighters.
There are also about 200 auxiliary combatants, Mr Caron said.
SOPFEU will also receive international support in the amount of approximately 350 additional combatants who are expected to arrive in Quebec within approximately a week.
With the teams already on site, SOPFEU estimates that up to 30 fires can be fought simultaneously. However, about 130 fires are currently considered “out of control” across the province.
“We cannot fight all these fires,” claims Stéphane Caron.
However, Quebec cannot count on the arrival of firefighters from other parts of Canada, the SOPFEU spokesman said.
“Right now there’s fires all over Canada, so inter-provincial aid is impossible,” he explains.
To see the full interview, watch the video above