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.
