PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Forty firefighters from central Oregon have been sent to help battle a wildfire in Canada that has destroyed parts of Fort McMurray in Alberta.
KATU-TV reports (https://bit.ly/20ETBYn ) that the firefighters, including the 20-member Prineville Hotshots crew, flew from the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho on Wednesday.
U.S. officials sent a total of 200 firefighters on Wednesday to help extinguish the 500,000-acre blaze. The firefighters are from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, and Fish and Wildlife Service.
The fire, which started May 1, has forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate, burned nearly 2,000 structures and hurt the region’s oil sands industry because of production shutdowns.
Canada has sent firefighters to the U.S. each of the last five years.
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Information from: KATU-TV, https://www.katu.com/
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