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Montana Firefighting Crews to Help with Blazes in Canada

Hotshot teams from the Helena, Lolo, Bitterroot and Flathead national forests will leave from Great Falls

By Associated Press

HELENA — Several elite firefighting crews from Montana plan to leave for the Canadian province of Alberta on Wednesday to help battle more than two dozen large wildfires.

Kathy Bushnell, spokeswoman for the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest, says hotshot teams from the Helena, Lolo, Bitterroot and Flathead national forests will leave from Great Falls.

Bushnell tells the Independent Record that the Rogue River Hotshots from Oregon will join them in traveling to northern Alberta.

Hotshot teams meet high standards for physical fitness, training, experience and leadership.

The largest fire in Alberta has burned about 1,160 square miles (3,000 square kilometers) of land. Smoke from the fires drifted into Montana late last week.