HAMILTON – Wildfires in Alberta, Canada have forced more than 10,000 people from their homes.
The blazes are still blazing and Montana’s most elite firefighters are on their way to help with several Hotshot crews are flying out early Wednesday morning.
The Bitterroot Hotshots left Hamilton for Great Falls on Tuesday where they will board a Canadian plane and join the Helena, Lolo, and the Flathead Hotshot crews, which are also being dispatched.
The Hotshot crews are the most highly trained and experienced firefighters in America.
The Bitterroot crew worked on a prescribed burn outside of Darby last month and now they’ll spend the next 14 days fighting wildfires in the Edmonton area.
There are some new members this year, and Superintendent Cache Gibbons said the crew is working well together.
“We have Canadian firefighters come down here a lot when we’re under extreme situations in the states so yeah we’re happy to head up there and help them when they’re in need.”
The Alberta fires have already burnt up more than 700,000 acres of land.
