Australia and NZ send help for Canada’s wildfiresFriday 2 Aug 2024 A contingent of 116 fire and emergency specialists from Australia and New Zealand was sent to Canada late July, following a request for assistance from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. Facilitated by the AFAC National Resource Sharing Centre (NRSC), the Australasian contingent includes representatives from every Australian state and territory and New Zealand. The contingent departed from Sydney and was deployed to support wildfire suppression operations in Alberta and British Columbia.Canada reached the maximum National Preparedness Level 5, with significant wildfire activity and firefighters and equipment in every jurisdiction put to use. Across Canada, as of 19 July, there were 717 active fires, with more than 280 burning out of control.  The Australasian contingent will support their Canadian counterparts for up to five weeks, in roles spanning air attack supervisors, strike team leaders, fire behaviour analysts, public information officers, heavy machinery managers and other incident management team roles. There is a long tradition of fire management resource sharing between Canada and Australia. Most recently in 2023, the AFAC NRSC coordinated a deployment of 746 Australasian personnel to Canada. In 2019-20, Canada supported Australia during the catastrophic Black Summer bushfires. AFAC CEO Rob Webb commended the Australasian personnel participating in the deployment to Canada. “The drive to save lives and livelihoods connects firefighting personnel across the globe. Just as Canada has supported us in our time of need, we are proud to return the favour. We are grateful to those who are deploying this week and acknowledge their commitment and contribution,” he said. “In times of significant wildfire activity and when domestic resources are stretched, international deployments provide great value for boosting wildfire firefighting capability. Years of hard work between our countries to align our incident management systems allow us to share resources effectively when required.” The AFAC NRSC is operated through shared investment between fire and emergency service agencies in Australia and New Zealand, and the Australian Government. The AFAC NRSC coordinates and facilitates international deployments as authorised by the Commissioners and Chief Officers Strategic Committee. The NRSC liaises with the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre to coordinate resource sharing with Canada. Source and image credit: AFAC Source & image credit: Tenacious Ventures  |
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