About 100 Québec and French Firefighters Sent to Support Manitoba

Québec City, June 19, 2025 – SOPFEU, in collaboration with the Government of Québec, reaffirms its support for Manitoba, which is currently facing numerous wildfires. Thanks to an innovative partnership established this year with a French organization called the Unité Internationale de Sapeurs Forestiers (UISF), SOPFEU is able to deploy to Manitoba a contingent made up of 60 Québec wildland firefighters and 39 French wildland firefighters. This team will be accompanied by five Québec section chiefs, three SOPFEU representatives, and one representative from the UISF.

The team is scheduled to depart on Friday from Québec City’s Jean Lesage International Airport, with a stop at the Val-d’Or Regional Airport. The mission will last 14 consecutive working days. It is worth noting that a first contingent of 60 Québec firefighters was deployed to Manitoba on June 3. That first group is scheduled to return to Québec today.

As a signatory to the Canadian Interagency Mutual Aid Resources Sharing Agreement (CIARSA), the Government of Québec supports its Canadian partners by providing resources when possible. SOPFEU and its members are fully committed to these cooperative efforts.

Founded by the French company AW & Partners, the UISF brings together under one uniform a range of forest fire management specialists, including volunteer firefighters, retired or available professional firefighters, and former civil protection military personnel. SOPFEU has signed a service agreement with this organization to strengthen the external support Québec can rely on during periods of intense wildfire activity. SOPFEU is pleased to extend the benefits of this agreement to Manitoba, through the Canadian mutual aid framework.

Current Resource Deployments

SOPFEU’s primary mission remains the protection of Québec territory. In collaboration with the Government of Québec, SOPFEU ensures that out-of-province deployments do not compromise its capacity to respond within the province.

So far, spring 2025 has been relatively quiet for SOPFEU teams. Thanks to favourable weather conditions—which are expected to persist in the coming days—and to the population’s continued vigilance in prevention, the number of human-caused wildfires has been more than twice as low as the average of recent years. Since the beginning of the protection season, 133 fires have been fought in intensive protection zones, affecting a total of 128.5 hectares of forest.

SOPFEU reminds the public that high caution remains essential as summer approaches—a season particularly prone to large-scale wildfires.