A team of 200 firefighters has landed in Canada to help put out raging fires in Alberta.
#2023WoFCanadianDeployment
Song and dance from #MZANZI1 as they arrive in Edmonton, Canada.#MZANZI1@environmentza@CIFFC@epwpza@kishugu pic.twitter.com/alj2IEnkuJ— Working on Fire (@wo_fire) June 4, 2023
The team departed for Alberta on a chartered aircraft from the Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport.
Twenty-five percent of the selected firefighters in this team are women.
A second team of 200 firefighters is expected to join this team in a week’s time.
The province of Alberta has experienced more than 550 wildfires this season.
Working On Fire’s Managing Director, Trevor Abrahams says, “So, the situation has been quite grave in Alberta, in fact across Canada. In Alberta they have lost 1.2 million hectares to fires. They have had a number of communities that had to be evacuated and it’s very early in the fire season so the risk is still quite high and the projected temperature profile suggests that they are going to experience quite a few fires. More than 60 fires are still ongoing and uncontrolled.”
SA team of 200 fire-fighters arrive in Canada:
