Fire and Emergency New Zealand is sending a 43-person taskforce to Canada to add to the assistance it is providing the Manitoba province with its wildfire response.

A seven-person specialist team arrived in Manitoba during the week. The second deployment leaves on Sunday and features an agency representative, two taskforce leaders and eight five-person arduous firefighting crews.

Like the specialist team, they will be deployed for approximately five weeks.

Canada is currently experiencing a severe wildfire season and all their national resources are fully deployed.

As of 9am today, there are 518 wildfires raging across multiple provinces and over 145 of these are considered out of control. There are 105 fires in Manitoba province.

The firefighters are considered ‘arduous firefighters’. It is tough, physical work. Previous Canadian deployments have seen arduous firefighters using hand tools to dig out hotspots, cut fallen branches, clear access tracks and escape routes, mop up, and all the other jobs associated with fighting large-scale fires.

This contingent is a mix of Fire and Emergency crews alongside Department of Conservation and forestry companies, and a New Plymouth District Council representative.

The deployed firefighters are from the following Fire and Emergency Districts:

Northland: 5

Waitematā: 3

Counties Manukau: 2

Waikato: 2

Bay of Plenty: 9

Tairāwhiti: 1

Taranaki: 2

Hawke’s Bay: 1

Manawatū-Whanganui: 1

Wellington: 4

West Coast: 1

Mid-South Canterbury: 6

Otago: 6

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