Fire And Emergency New Zealand To Deploy Wildfire Personnel To Canada

Fire and Emergency New Zealand along with the Department of Conservation and Forest Protection Services will send seven incident management team members to assist Canada with its wildfire response in British Columbia.

The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre sent a formal request for assistance to Fire and Emergency late last week.

The situation in British Columbia is significant, with 157 wildfires in the province as of Friday morning 19 July. There are 685 active wildfires across Canada.

The Alpha deployment will consist of one agency liaison representative, two helicopter coordinators, two division supervisors and two operations branch directors.

"We’re happy to provide support to our Canadian colleagues as they experience another difficult wildfire season," Fire and Emergency National Commander Russell Wood says.

"In addition to helping the Canadian wildfire teams, deploying overseas is a valuable development opportunity for those involved. It gives them experience in different environments which they can bring back and apply to New Zealand wildfires," Russell Wood says.

The Alpha contingent departs on Sunday 21 July, and will be Fire and Emergency’s 72nd international wildfire deployment since 2000. This number does not include non-wildfire deployments, such as for natural disasters.

Fire and Emergency has deployed 1509 firefighters internationally for wildfires since 2000.

There is an opportunity for media to talk to some of the group before they leave; in person or over the phone. Please see details for this below:

Time: 3pm, Sunday 21 July

Location: Holiday Inn, Auckland Airport. Please meet at reception.

Fire and Emergency deployed personnel are from:

Wellington, Nelson-Marlborough, Mid-South Canterbury, Southland. The two external personnel are from Northland and Southland respectively.

If you wish to attend or have a phone interview, please RSVP by 4pm Friday to media@fireandemergency.nz

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