Canada reaches out
109 firefighters from South Africa, who were recently deployed to Canada to help fight fires, are safely back home. They work for the Department of Environments’ Working on Fire programme.
The group left the country on the 10th of August, for Winnipeg. This to assist their Canadian counterparts, who were exhausted, fighting large wildland fires.
Mission accomplished
The Minister of the Environment, Barbara Creecy has welcomed them back at the airport this morning.
“I extend my deepest gratitude and appreciation to the Working on Fire team, returning home from a successful firefighting mission in Manitoba. The praise for your professionalism and high-performance standards expressed by Canadian authorities, is indicative of the success of the Working on Fire programme,” said Creecy.
A job well done
28 of the firefighters who left, were women and 35 team members have previously done duty in Canada.
The request for assistance came through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. In terms of a Memorandum of Understanding between Canada and South Africa, the two countries may request firefighters to help out.
This was Working on Fire’s 4th deployment to Canada (2015, 2016 & 2019).
