Benjamin Jennell of West Newbury is one of 11 state wildland firefighters dispatched by Gov. Maura Healey’s administration to Quebec, Canada to help battle some of the more than 124 wildfires that have burned since the beginning of the month.
Healey, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper and officials from the Department of Conservation and Recreation joined together last Thursday morning to send off the firefighter crew at DCR’s Bureau of Forestry and Fire Control headquarters in Carlisle.
“Over the last several years we have seen the impacts of the climate crisis here at home and around the world, in the forms of extreme weather and increasingly severe wildfires that continue to ravage our forests,” said Healey. “We are proud of these 11 Massachusetts wildland firefighters who are heading up to assist our Canadian partners in battling these intense wildfires.”
The deployment came in response to a request the state received last week from the Northeast Forest Fire Protection Commission and the Northeastern Interagency Coordination Center at the White Mountain National Forest in Campden, N.H. The firefighters will travel to La Touque, where they will be assigned to one of many ongoing fire incidents throughout the province. The crew, which is also referred to as a “Wildfire Suppression Module,” will engage in direct fire suppression, working on the fire line for about 14 days—building fire breaks, securing fire perimeters, containing fires and protecting structures.
State officials said rising temperatures, drier conditions due to years long droughts and a lack of rain and snowfall, all caused by climate change, are fueling increased fire activity, making fire season last longer and its effects more severe. These conditions have made wildfires over the last few years more extreme and active than in the past. Climate change is also affecting wildlife in forested areas including an increase in insect activity which affects tree mortality and can create more fuel for fires to feed off. So far this year in Massachusetts, more than 820 wildfires have burned 1,500 acres.
The Quebec situation is just the latest in an ongoing wildfire issue across Canada this year, including British Columbia, Alberta, and most recently Nova Scotia, and has resulted in major smoke impacts across the northeastern United States. The Northeast Forest Fire Protection Commission is a compact comprised of the six New England states, New York and four eastern Canadian provinces, including Quebec. Massachusetts is one of the original members of the compact, which was formed in 1949 to provide interstate and international wildland fire mutual aid assistance.
All firefighters are federally certified, having passed a 40-hour federal wildland firefighting class and physical fitness test. Besides Jennell, other firefighters are coming from Conway, Plainville, Salem, Sagamore Beach, Oak Bluffs, Millis, Carver, Holliston, Milbury and Plymouth.