The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment’s Working on Fire programme indicated that it will deploy 109 firefighters and management officials to the province of Manitoba in Canada on Tuesday, August 10, as the country is currently experiencing record-breaking heat and associated dry weather.
The request for assistance came from the Canadian Inter-agency Forest Fire Centre, which has a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Canada and South Africa asking for firefighting assistance from Working on Fire. The MOU also provides for the exchange of wildland fire management resources between these two countries.
A crew of 100 firefighters and a nine-person management team were selected following a process that included criteria such as physical fitness, having a valid yellow card, more than three years of actual firefighting experience, a valid South African passport, and additional criteria such as passing a drug test and having a clear criminal record.
Out of the selected firefighters, 30 are women and 35 have previous deployment experience to Canada and they will be deployed for a period of 34 days.
Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy extended her well wishes to the team indicating that she trusts they will fly South Africa’s flag high as they did in the past.
“I would like to extend my good wishes to the Working on Fire team as you embark on your fourth deployment to Canada to assist in bringing the fires currently raging across Manitoba under control and that your camaraderie will stand you in good stead as you battle alongside colleagues from other Canadian provinces and cities to save lives and homes,” Creccy said.
The Minister added that the department’s partners and stakeholders should also be reassured that this deployment will in no way have an impact on our current firefighting resources in South Africa, where the Working on Fire programme is able to call on close to 5 000 firefighters spread throughout the country.
Meanwhile, the team will fly to Canada on a British Airways Chartered flight which has been arranged by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre and then fly to Winnipeg, Canada, via London.
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