Southern firefighters heading to Canada
JOHN Barratt has been working up a sweat trying to get all his gear packed before his plane leaves for Canada today.
But it will be nothing like the sweat he will work up once he starts fighting the wildfires in British Columbia in a few days.
The Wakari Volunteer Rural Fire Force firefighter is one of three fire personnel from Dunedin who are headed to Canada to tackle that country’s increasing number of blazes.
There are also three from Invercargill and four from Queenstown among the 65 from across the country.
Mr Barratt has 17 years experience as a volunteer firefighter and during that time he has fought fires in the Australian state of Victoria in 2006 and more recently in Tasmania.
‘‘I’ve been on holiday to Canada before and the terrain is very similar to New Zealand. I’m not expecting any surprises in that regard.
‘‘But we go in an alert state and we don’t take anything for granted, regardless of what volatility it is.
‘‘It’s extremely dry over there — very volatile.
‘‘Everything could change instantly.’’
Mr Barratt said he volunteered for the 42day deployment because it would give him invaluable experience and an opportunity to help fellow firefighters in need.
‘‘Most of the campaign fires are a lot larger and there’s a lot more scope for learning, even if you’ve been 17 years in the service.
‘‘It’s good to see the size and complexity of the fires, and the way other authorities deal with it. You learn a lot when you travel overseas.’’
Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) rural national manager Kevin O’Connor said 54 firefighters and 11 incident management team members started flying out of Auckland last night, and the deployment would continue today.
They would arrive in Vancouver to be ‘‘inducted and briefed’’, and would then be deployed.
‘‘At the latest count, there are 453 fires burning in British Columbia, and the British Columbia Wildfire Service has requested assistance to help manage the situation from other Canadian provinces as well as New Zealand, Mexico and Australia,’’ Mr O’Connor said.
The New Zealand contingent would be made up of 18 threeperson crews, who would be engaged in fire suppression, and the management team, which would help with the management of multiple fires.
The Canada deployment follows one of 36 fire personnel to the United States’ northwest.
❛ . . . we don’t take anything for granted, regardless of what
volatility it is