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View Royal fire department sent to battle B.C. wildfires

Department sent four crew members and a pumper truck to Williams Lake
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A wildfire burns on a mountain in the distance east of Cache Creek, B.C., in the early morning hours of Monday July 10, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

After being placed on standby earlier this week, View Royal Fire Rescue has been called to the B.C. Interior.

The department received notice that they had been deployed yesterday and arrived in Williams Lake this morning. It’s expected that the four-member crew will help with any structural fires that may occur as wildfires continue to threaten the city of roughly 10,000 people. The municipality was put on an evacuation alert earlier this week.

The crew was sent in one of View Royal’s spare pumper trucks and will likely be deployed for a period of five or six days before trading off with another four-man crew, should the need continue.

Chief Paul Hurst was deployed to the fire commissioner’s office on Saturday and continues to help co-ordinate the massive influx of resources to the area.

Over 200 wildfires are burning across the Interior of the province and 14,000 people have been forced from their homes through evacuation orders.

joel.tansey@goldstreamgazette.com

Twitter: @joelgazette