ALBANY, N.Y. (WTEN) -- A record 24 million acres in Canada have been destroyed due to the ongoing wildfires. Forest rangers with the state's Department of Environmental Conservation just returned home after spending two weeks battling those flames. Our Capitol Correspondent spoke with those rangers and has the latest on how New York is being affected by the flames.
"Pretty much that was the gist of our two week assignment was, seek and destroy hotspots. And we did it really well. I think we showed Quebec what we can do. I think they appreciated everything we did," said Gary Miller, who was in charge of a 20-person crew while in Canada.
He said normally, firefighters dig lines to help control fires. These are trenches that deprive the wildfire of additional fuel by removing surrounding debris, but Miller said this wasn’t possible in Canada, "In Quebec; cause the fire was so big and hand line, and dozer lines, you just can’t do it with the terrain. It’s pretty much… they let the fire go until it hits a wet area and then they use their helicopters to control that way."
He said there were around eight helicopters being used in Canada and they did a great job executing precision drops with bambi buckets. As far as when we’ll see an end to all this, that’s to be determined. "It's just not feasible, I couldn’t even tell you how many people you have to put on it, and sometimes the risk is just not, not worth it."
John D’Alessandro, association secretary for Firefighters Association of the State of New York said, fires like this are unpredictable. "We often put it in terms of you know, a thinking, breathing thing that has a mind of its own fire... you know firefighters, believe that they have a large wildland fire under control, but then the wind shifts and it goes into a whole new area that might have a lot of combustible material available to it," he said.
The wildfires have affected our air quality here in New York. Governor Hochul announced a statewide air quality health advisory for Monday, which can be monitored though airnow.gov.
