Connecticut Firefighter Heading to Battle Wildfires in Quebec

A team of 19 firefighters will depart to a section of northern Quebec that has been hammered by long-burning wildfires.

The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection announced Friday that the crew will be departing on Saturday at 5 a.m. from the DEEP Eastern District Headquarters in Marlborough.

DEEP spokesman Cyndy Chanaca said DEEP does not give out names because it wants to protect the privacy of the responders while they are away.

The wildfires have been raging in an area of northern Quebec since early July, according to the CBC. Other firefighters from outside Canada have also responded, such as a team of 21 people from Massachusetts dispatched last week, according to CBS Boston.

The crew, which will assemble at 3:30 a.m. on July 20, consists of nine DEEP employees and 10 private sector ones. They will be deployed for up to two weeks.

The crew assisting Canada is under the auspices of the Northeast Forest Fire Compact. The Compact is a mutual aid agreement between several northeastern states and Eastern Canadian Provinces. 

Chanaca said the responders come from the following towns: Lyme, Tolland, Killingworth, Dayville, Coventry, Middletown, Gaylordsville, Preston, North Windham, Waterbury, Chester, Trumbull, Naugatuck, Hampton, Lebanon, Chaplin, Berlin, Glastonbury and Mystic.