Firefighters from across Canada are on their way to Australia to bolster Canadians already assisting the country in the battle against devastating wildfires.
The 95-member team includes 34 Albertans with two firefighters from Fort McMurray.
Melanie Morin, information officer with the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC), said no members of the team are frontline firefighters.
“What we have sent are Incident Management Team members, [who are] specialists in their respective fields.”
Morin said they would provide oversight to various departments.
“We sent [members] to staff as operations chiefs, logistics chiefs, planning chiefs, behaviour analysts, and aviation [management]. People who will be able to part of the management team currently there in Australia.”
As of publication, eight are currently en route to join other team members stationed in Queensland and New South Wales.
Transborder relationships
This is the first time that Canada has sent firefighters to Australia.
However, the CIFFC said crews from Down Under visited Canada.
They were vital in helping B.C. handle widespread wildfires in 2017 and 2018.
The Canadian contingent is made up of male and female volunteers from B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon and Parks Canada.
The Australian wildfires have killed at least 24 people and destroyed nearly 2,000 homes across the country in the past few months.
Stephen Tulle, CIFFC duty officer, said many of the Canadians are already familiar with their Australian counterparts.
“It’s like old homecoming week. They’re down there and they say, ‘Hey, we worked together in British Columbia in 2018.’ And so, they do know each other. They do have those contacts and those relationships.”
Canadian firefighters will spend about six weeks in Australia before returning home.
“Our people, kudos to them, have been standing up saying, ‘Yeah, you know what, they’ve been here for us and we’d like to be here for them.’ “
Tulle said Canada will continue to send crews as long as volunteers can be found, and Australia is requesting help.
This article includes excerpts from The Canadian Press first published Dec. 30, 2019.
