Pretoria -The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment will be sending 400 firefighters to Alberta, Canada to assist with firefighting and fire suppression efforts.
The request for urgent assistance came from the Canadian Inter-agency Forest Fire Centre following an existing Memorandum of Understanding between Canada and South Africa which was signed in 2019.
This will be the fifth deployment since the the agreement was signed.
Alberta has already experienced more than 550 wildfires this season resulting in significant damage to property and infrastructure, and displacing thousands of people.
The department said the first 200 firefighters together with 15 managers will depart for Canada on a chartered aircraft from Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport on Saturday.
Another team of 200 firefighters and 13 managers will join the crew in Alberta in a week.
The team will be stationed in Canada for 35 days.
“I would like to extend my best wishes to the team as you embark on your deployment to Canada to help put out the fires raging in Alberta. You go to Canada to raise the South African flag and share your expertise and camaraderie with colleagues from other Canadian provinces to save lives, homes, businesses and large swathes of vegetation,” said the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy.
According to the department, the firefighters have more than three years’ firefighting experience and are physically fit.
The first 25% of the selected firefighters in the first deployment are women.
“We are proud of the fact that South Africa is again able to assist Canadian firefighting teams in their battle to bring the wildfires under control. The extensive experience and training of these firefighters will significantly enhance efforts to effectively suppress and manage the wildfires in Alberta,” said Creecy.
IOL