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B.C. fires: Christy Clark pledges to spend beyond budget on wildfires

CBC News

"We will spend what we need," said Clark. "If more resources are required we will get them."
Wonderful!
But just a quick question. Where's she going to get the manpower from?
Most of the fire fighting crews I know have disbanded with the members finding employment elsewhere. Actually, that's a lie. All the crews I know of are disbanded.
Fires in the prairies are already employing almost all the big union crews.
Will BC need to call in the military, too?
Listen, Premier Clark! It takes time to train people to fight fires. You need experienced, grizzled veterans who know and understand how fires act and react, especially in uncontrollable conditions. You can't have all-rookie crews running around in the damn woods fighting these fires. They're too uncontrollable, both the fires and the rookies!
Accidents and injuries will happen, and even deaths. You need the right people in the right places.
Most of the small crews are gone, and many probably won't come back even if you're dangling money. These people took a hell of a lot pride in this work, and when the BC government started greedily choking off the money, what incentive did these people have to continue working in this business?
Your government was warned, again and again, conditions in BC's forests were changing rapidly, and they were becoming more and more susceptible to wild fires. And yet your government slashed forestry's budget, again and again. And people lost their jobs when they didn't need to, and now they probably won't return.
Good luck in this endeavour. You'll need it.

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