More than 200 firefighters from the Working on Fire (WOF) Kishugu Joint Venture departed on Sunday to help fight wildfires in Alberta, Canada, a province which has already experienced over 900 fires this year.
WOF is a government-funded job creation programme that recruits young men and women from marginalised communities and trains them in fire awareness and education, prevention and fire suppression skills.
WOF’s Linton Rensburg said more than 200 firefighters and management were deployed following an urgent request from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) in terms of the existing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Canada and South Africa.
“The MOU signed in 2019, provides for the exchange of wildland fire management resources between South Africa and Canada,” he said.
Rensburg said this will be WOF’s sixth deployment to Canada.
“Between 2015 and 2023, Working on Fire has been on five deployments to Canada, based on this MOU. These five deployments include the historic deployment of 860 firefighters and management in 2023, which was one of the largest deployments of international firefighters to Canada.”
He said the Working on Fire team assembled at the Kishugu Training Academy in Mbombela, Mpumalanga last week for a three-day training camp for final preparation prior to departure.
The team left on Sunday on a charter plane arranged by the CIFFC from the Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport in Mbombela.
“Firefighters and management are expected to be deployed in Alberta for a period of 39 days, inclusive of travelling and rest days,” he said.
Rensburg said the 2024 Canadian deployment team comprises pumptrained firefighters, who have a valid Yellow Card; more than three years’ actual firefighting experience and who are physically fit.
“Thirty percent of the selected firefighters in the first deployment are women. This includes three members of the management team,” he said.
He said several members of the team have previous international firefighting experience, which further enhances the expertise in tackling complex fire situations.
“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 Rensburg.
He said WOF assured the public that this deployment would not impact South African firefighting operations.
Rensburg said all of the 200-plus firefighting bases in South Africa would continue to provide firefighting and fire prevention services to WOF partners and landowners.
“We will still have just over 50000 firefighters available ... Should there be major wildland fire activities in our Winter fire season provinces, we will, as we have done in the past, be able to deploy our Western and Eastern Cape firefighters to these hot spots,” he said.
The Mercury