MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Currently about 2,900 firefighters and 203 aircraft are involved in a fire extinguishing operation, while the country’s authorities have already spend over $80 million to fight the natural cataclysm, the CBC broadcaster reported Sunday, citing Canadian Minister of Forests John Rustad.
Rustad added that one helicopter crashed during the operation, the pilot was injured.
A total of 178 fires are currently active in British Columbia, while some 131,000 hectares of forest have been destroyed by fire in 2017, Chief fire information officer Kevin Skrepnek said, according to the broadcaster.