- Twenty-three WA firefighters and emergency services
personnel bound for Canada
- Crews to spend several weeks battling wildfires around
Alberta and British Columbia
- Western Australian firefighters and emergency management
personnel will fly to Canada this week to help battle catastrophic wildfires
burning around Alberta and British Columbia.
Six Department of Fire and Emergency Services and 17
Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions staff will join
Canadian authorities, providing valuable support with their skills in frontline
firefighting and complex incident management.
The first contingent, comprising of 10 crew members
qualified in arduous firefighting, two heavy equipment supervisors and a senior
agency liaison officer, will leave Perth tomorrow.
The second deployment, an incident management team of 10
senior staff with specialist skills in fire leadership, fire behaviour
analytics and incident planning, leaves on Friday 26 May.
Canada has experienced major wildfires in recent weeks with
more than 1.7 million hectares burnt to date and no relief in sight from the
unrelenting hot and dry weather conditions.
Local personnel will be deployed for four weeks as part of a
222-strong contingent from Australian and New Zealand fire agencies,
coordinated by the Australasian Fire Authorities Council's National Resource
Sharing Centre.
A taskforce of 17 WA firefighters spent several weeks in
Canada assisting with wildfires in July and August 2021.
Comments attributed to Emergency Services Minister Stephen
Dawson:
"Western Australia stands ready to assist Canada and
I'm proud we are able to deploy some of our most experienced and highly trained
personnel.
"Firefighters in Canada have been battling extreme
conditions for weeks and Australian deployments will provide some much-needed
relief and support.
"I thank each crew member for their enduring commitment
to helping communities in need and wish them safe travels."
Comments attributed to Environment Minister Reece Whitby:
"I'm incredibly proud we can deploy these skilled
volunteer firefighters and emergency services personnel to help protect
Canadian communities in their time of need.
"Western Australia is pleased to support our friends in
Canada who have always responded to our calls for help and stood by us during
devastating bushfires.
"I wish our firefighters well as they battle this
wildfire emergency over the next five weeks. They will provide critical support
to exhausted crews on the ground in some of the hardest hit areas."
Emergency Services Minister's office - 6552 5800
Environment Minister's office - 6552 6300
