The Working on Fire – Kishugu Joint Venture is deploying a team of more than 200 firefighters and management to the Canadian province of Alberta to assist with firefighting and fire suppression efforts.
This will be the sixth deployment by a Working on Fire team 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.
We have finalized the deployment list of firefighters and management and they have been informed of this pending deployment. Our Working on Fire team assembled at Kishugu Training Academy in Mbombela, Mpumalanga on Monday 22 July 2024, for a three-day Training Camp for final preparation prior to departure.
Our firefighters and management will depart for Alberta, Canada via a charter arranged by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) on Saturday, 27 July 2024 from the Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport in Mbombela. The deployment of our firefighters and management is expected to be deployed in Alberta for a period of 39 days, inclusive of traveling and rest days.
We extend our best wishes to the team as they embark on their deployment to Canada to help put out the fires raging in Alberta. They go to Canada to raise the South Africa flag and share their expertise and camaraderie with colleagues from other Canadian provinces and countries.
The request for urgent assistance came from 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. It was put in place following two earlier deployments to Canada to suppress wildland fires in Alberta and Manitoba.
The 2024 Canadian deployment team comprises pump trained 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 and highlights Working on Fire’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.
A number of the team members 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.
We wish to reassure all our partners and stakeholders that this deployment will not have any impact on our South African firefighting operations and every one of our 200-plus firefighting bases in South Africa will continue to provide firefighting and fire prevention services to our partners and landowners. We will still have just over 5,000 firefighters available at these bases throughout South Africa.
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 hotspots. No partner and landowner will be left without any firefighting operations from Working on Fire, and we urge you to communicate with us directly should you have any enquiries.
In conclusion, this request from CIFFC is a vote of confidence in our wildland firefighting capacity and abilities in South Africa and we must be extremely proud of our deployees who have been selected.
For many of them, this will be a life-changing experience and it all forms part of our objectives in developing our youth and creating opportunities for them to learn and experience new territories beyond our borders.
For media inquiries, please contact:
Linton Rensburg
Stakeholder Relations Manager: Working On Fire – Kishugu Joint Venture linton.rensburg@wofire.co.za or +27 82 508 0990
