SA firefighters head home from Canada
A CREW of 100 firefighters and their management team will return to South Africa today after a deployment to Manitoba in Canada.
The team is from the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment’s Working on Fire (WOF) programme.
The firefighters assisted authorities in tackling wildland blazes.
The group left on August 10, and when it arrived, Winnipeg was experiencing high fire dangers. its resources were exhausted and it was on its highest level – National Preparedness Level 5. The country has since moved to Level 2, indicating that wildfires were subsiding and that most of the fires were either extinguished or under control.
The firefighting divisions were deployed to various fires in Manitoba from August 13.
This is the fourth deployment of South Africa’s firefighters to Canada.
The request for assistance came from the Canadian Inter-agency Forest Fire Centre which had, in terms of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Canada and South Africa, asked for assistance from WOF to assist with its fire management in Canada.
The MOU provides for the exchange of Wildland Fire Management Resources between these two countries.
International Agency Resource Representative Trevor Abrahams said: “The success of this 2021 Canadian deployment should also largely be borne out of the success of our Working on Fire programme, which has over the past 18 years demonstrated its ability to deploy large firefighting resources, both at international (Canada and Indonesia) and at domestic level (Knysna, Cape Town, Mpumalanga, Free State, Northern Cape and Garden Route).”
Loon Straits Complex (Manitoba Wildfire Services) operations chief, Warren Toderan, said: “It was a pleasure to work with such a fine team of firefighters. They showed extreme professionalism and hard-working skills.
“Any objective was accomplished immediately and effectively. Every crew member was always smiling, even when they were placed in wet swamps and difficult working conditions. Everyone enjoyed camping on the line along the fire. This was my first time, as a Manitoba firefighter, to have the chance to work with SA crews.
“It was a rewarding experience I will never forget. I learnt so much about the culture, and many similarities and different challenges we face in our respective countries. Safe travels to all SA Crews and overhead.”