Fire And Emergency Sends Specialists To Assist Canadians To Fight Wildfires

On 26 August 2023, a fifth deployment of Fire and Emergency and forestry company specialist personnel are departing Auckland airport to assist with the ongoing wildfires in Canada.

Echo deployment consists of two Divisional Supervisors, two Heavy Equipment Group Supervisors, one Air Operations Branch Director, one Helicopter Coordinator and one Area Representative..

An international effort has been made to assist Canada, with firefighters from Australia, United States, South Africa, France, Mexico, Costa Rica and Brazil all pitching in. This New Zealand deployment will provide much needed support and relief to local fire managers who have been doing it tough since May.

Fire and Emergency has already deployed 92 firefighters across four deployments to the country to help with the firefighting efforts. The majority of those firefighters were on the ground undertaking ‘arduous firefighting’.

New Zealand remains in frequent contact with Canada to assess how we can continue to support them.

Back home, we have begun preparing for the upcoming wildfire season in New Zealand, early, because it is expected to carry heightened fire danger due to an El Niño weather pattern this summer.

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