Forty firefighters from Central Oregon - including the 20-person Prineville Hotshots crew - flew to the Fort McMurray fire in Alberta Wednesday from the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise. Additional crews flew to Canada from an air base in Missoula, Montana,
In all, about 200 wildland firefighters from the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service were mobilized to battle the blaze, which started on May 1 and lead to wide-scale evacuations.
Carol Connolly, a spokeswoman for the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center in Portland, said in addition to the Prineville crew, another 20 wildland firefighters from Central Oregon were also dispatched the battle the 500,000 acre fire.
"Canada has assisted the U.S. many times in the past, so as soon as Canada requested assistance, we quickly accommodated their request," said Dan Buckley, NIFC's National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group Chair in a news release.
Officials also said that on May 10, two heavy air tankers and a lead plane were sent to Canada assist with wildfire suppression in Ontario.