New Zealand firefighters to help combat Canadian wildfires

10 July 2015

Sixteen firefighters from the country’s rural fire authorities are to fly to Canada next week to help contain fires raging in the state of Alberta.

National Rural Fire Officer Kevin O'Connor said the firefighters would leave Auckland for Vancouver on Tuesday before transferring to Edmonton, Alberta, to start what is expected to be a five-week deployment.

Mr O’Connor said the deployment followed a request from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre earlier this week.

The team, drawn from rural fire authorities around the country, would provide frontline support to local firefighters.

“Our people have a range of skills in high demand during lengthy firefighting operations,” he said. “These include logistics, planning, finance, ferrying supplies into remote locations and the use of aircraft.”

About 800,000 hectares of forest are burning across the states of Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Colombia, as well as in neighbouring Alaska.

New Zealand previously lent support to Canadian authorities in August 2009 during a serious outbreak of wildfires.

New Zealand firefighters have also helped their counterparts in Australia nine times and their American counterparts five times in the past 15 years.

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