PHOENIX — Arizona fire crews have been tapped to help our neighbors to the north as Canada faces unprecedented and devastating wildfires.
One of those crews is the Mesa Hotshots with the U.S. Forest Service of the Tonto National Forest.
They've been in central Alberta, about three hours north of Edmonton, for fifteen days.
"We've been actively fighting fire for fifteen days and have another six to go," said Hotshot Superintendent Patrick Moore.
Moore describes the conditions near his team as labor intensive and ripe with heavy fuels. They are in a boreal forest.
“We've really been working hard to cold trail the fire edge," Moore said. "It's where we put our hands in it and have to touch every bit of the edge.”
Moore's full crew of twenty people was sent to the region. They are one of many crews in Canada working to contain fires across the entire country.
The fires are so large in some areas that smoke has engulfed parts of the eastern United States.
Countless businesses and homes across Canada are gone.
“A lot of farming and ranching up here, and when you lose your barn and your house, it's been rough on them," Moore said. "And now we've got a new start that started today that's working that way again so we'll see how we deal with that.”
Wildlife has been impacted too. Moore and his team have seen bears and moose fleeing the area.
Moore said due to active wildfire seasons; hotshot crews no longer have six months on and six months off of work. He said they're working on expanding hotshot crews to more than twenty people per unit.
“We can only do so much, you know," Moore said. "In the United States, there's only 113 certified hotshot crews.”
The Mesa hotshot crew is working fourteen-hour shifts and still has close to a week to go.
Moore said they would get three mandatory days off after returning to Arizona. He will give his team an additional day but expects to be called back to work on the fifth day.
"With the way fuels are, overstocked forests and long-term drought, we expect to see it is just getting worse before it gets better," Moore said.
In addition to Mesa's crew, 12News has learned the Payson and Aravaipa Hotshot crews are also in Canada helping with the firefight.
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