Source: Fire and Emergency New Zealand
A second group of 21 New Zealand firefighting personnel are leaving today for Alberta, Canada to help fight wildfires devastating the province.
Fire and Emergency Deputy National Commander Steph Rotarangi says the new contingent is in addition to the 25 who left New Zealand on 24 May and who are presently hard at work across Alberta.
“What we know is that the second contingent will deploy for approximately 5 weeks. They’ll be firefighting in tough conditions, for long hours,” she says.
The situation in western Canada is significant, with large wildfires burning across the area just north of the US-Canada border. The conditions remain challenging, particularly when high temperatures combining with moderate to strong winds.
“Given the scale of the emergency in Alberta and across other Canadian Provinces, it’s likely further requests for support may follow,” Steph Rotarangi says.
Canada’s wildfire season started earlier than predicted due to unseasonably warm and dry weather. Alberta isn’t the only province under pressure as neighbouring British Columbia and now Nova Scotia in Canada’s east are also battling wildfires.
Fire and Emergency takes the responsibility of providing international firefighting support seriously, but also sees value in using it to improve our firefighters’ skills.
“When we deploy internationally and provide help to other countries, we also benefit a lot,” Steph Rotarangi says.
“These deployments are extremely valuable for our firefighters and firefighting specialists. It gives them experience in different environments that they can bring back home.”
