Operation PEREGRINE was a domestic Canadian military operation that took place between August 3 and September 16, 2003.
In early August 2003, British Columbia was overwhelmed by over 800 separate forest fires. Provincial fire services were stretched to the breaking point, and tens of thousands of people were forced to evacuate their homes. The provincial government requested federal aid, and within days, over 2,200 Canadian Forces (CF) personnel had been mobilized. After receiving a day of basic forest firefighting training from the British Columbia Forest Service, including safety procedures, fire ratings, hose handling, and fire behaviour, the soldiers took to the fire lines. Deployed soldiers were divided in two task forces - Task Force One based in Kamloops, and Task Force Two, based in the Okanagan Valley.
The operation lasted 45 days, and at its height more than 2,600 military personnel were in action. In terms of deployed forces at the time, it surpassed in numbers any Canadian Forces operation overseas.
It was the CF's third-largest recent domestic operation, after Operation RECUPERATION in response to the 1998 ice storm in Southern Ontario and Quebec, and Operation ASSISTANCE in response to the 1997 Red River flood.
Read more about Operation Peregrine: Deployed Canadian Forces Units, Decorations
Famous quotes containing the word operation:
“Waiting for the race to become official, he began to feel as if he had as much effect on the final outcome of the operation as a single piece of a jumbo jigsaw puzzle has to its predetermined final design. Only the addition of the missing fragments of the puzzle would reveal if the picture was as he guessed it would be.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)