A second group of 21 firefighting personnel from Aotearoa New Zealand have departed for Alberta, Canada, to help fight wildfires burning across the province.
The Bravo contingent consists of 21 personnel, made up of four five-person arduous firefighting crews, including five personnel from the Department of Conservation (DOC), and a liaison officer.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) National Commander Russell Wood says the second contingent is being deployed in addition to the seven specialist personnel who landed in British Columbia a week earlier.
“We know that this second contingent will deploy for approximately five weeks. They’ll be firefighting in tough conditions, working hard to keep the communities of Alberta safe,” he says.
The situation in Canada is significant, with more than 860 active wildfires burning across the country – of the blazes, 134 of these are burning across Alberta.
“Given the scale of the emergency in western Canada, it’s likely we’ll receive further requests for support,” Commander Wood says.
He said FENZ takes the responsibility of providing international firefighting support seriously, but there is also value in using it to improve local firefighters’ skills.
“These deployments are extremely valuable for our firefighters and firefighting specialists. It gives them experience in different environments that they can bring back home.”
Fire and Emergency deployed personnel are from: Northland, Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Hawke’s Bay, and Nelson Marlborough. The five DOC personnel are from Taranaki, Nelson Marlborough, Mid-South Canterbury, Otago, and Southland.
