Mission accomplished after reaching out to Canada – Firefighters from working on fire deployed in Manitoba, return home on 16 September 2021

The 109 firefighters and management from Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environments’ Working on Fire programme landed safely back in South Africa on Thursday morning, 16 September 2021, after a successful deployment to Manitoba, Canada, where the South Africans assisted provincial firefighting authorities with wildland firefighting efforts.

These firefighters and management left South Africa on 10 August 2021 and at the time of their arrival in Winnipeg, Canada were experiencing high fire dangers, their available wildland fire management resources within the country were exhausted and they were on their highest level, National Preparedness Level 5.

In welcoming home our South African firefighters, Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy said “I extend my deepest gratitude and appreciation to the Working on Fire team that is returning home from a successful firefighting mission in Canada, Manitoba. The praise for your professionalism and high-performance standards expressed by Canadian authorities, is indicative of the success of the Working on Fire programme and its capabilities in Integrated Fire Management over the past 18 years. The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, the Expanded Public Works Programme and indeed South Africa shares in this proud moment with all of you and welcome back home.”

“This was by far one of the most successful international deployments and indeed a huge vote of confidence in the South African government’s Expanded Public Works Programme, Working on Fire. These young men and women represented our country with pride and dignity, their work ethic, professionalism, and fitness levels were highly regarded in Canada. It was a wonderful experience to see how they managed to work seamlessly alongside firefighting authorities from Manitoba Wildfire Services”, Minister Creecy.

The 109 South African firefighters and management consisted of 5 divisions of 21 crew members, each crew under the leadership of a Strike Team Leader (STLD), 2 Agency Representatives (AREPS) who had overall command of these crews, 1 Covid Coordinator and 1 International Agency Resource Representative (IARR) who was the overall team leader in Canada. 28 of these firefighters were women and 35 team members has had previous deployment to Canada. They were deployed to the Province of Manitoba where large wildland fires were actively burning at the time of their arrival in Canada.

This request for assistance came through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) in terms of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Canada and South Africa, in asking for this firefighting assistance from Working on Fire (WOF) to assist with their fire management in Canada. This MOU provides for the exchange of Wildland Fire Management Resources between these two countries. This is Working on Fire’s 4th deployment to Canada (2015, 2016 & 2019).

As part of the Memorandum of Understanding between South Africa and Canada, the South African firefighters were remunerated at the same rate as their Canadian counterparts and deployees from other countries.

The firefighting divisions were deployed to various active fires in Manitoba from Friday 13 August 2021, Loon Straits in the Eastern Sector and the Cold Lake complex in the Western Sector where multiple fires were burning.

The Working on Fire Teams participated in extinguishing the Loon Straits fire in Eastern Manitoba and then combatting fires 083, 038 and 032 in North Western Manitoba as part of the Cold Lake fire complex. By the time the South African fire fighters demobilized from the fire line on 11 September 2021, fire 083 and fire 038 were extinguished, and fire 032 was under control.

The Manitoba fire management authorities were full of praise for the South African WoF fire fighters throughout the course of the deployment. The Incident Commander, Sam Sole, expressed gratitude on behalf of the North West Region, the government of Manitoba and indicated that the South African team was able to assist in the fire suppression efforts and highlighted the level of professionalism and hard work demonstrated by the Working on Fire team and concluded with wishing the team a safe trip home.

In response, Agency Representative (AREP) from Working on Fire, Antoinette Jini, expressed her gratitude to all who played a role from the Canadian teams (from the Incident Command to the kitchen staff who looked after the team) for the consistent appreciation of the South African team, the teamwork demonstrated and for lessons imparted during this deployment whilst maintaining focus on the objectives of the assigned work.

“The success of this 2021 Canadian Deployment should also largely be borne out of the success of our Working on Fire programme, which has over the past 18 years demonstrated its ability to deploy large firefighting resources, both at international (Canada and Indonesia) and at domestic level (Knysna, Cape Town, Mpumalanga, Free State, Northern Cape and Garden Route)”, said IARR Trevor Abrahams.

“We want to thank the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) for the wonderful relationship and partnership which made this deployment possible, and we wish to extend our gratitude and thanks to the government and people of Manitoba for their warm welcome and support, but also importantly to our hosts, Manitoba Wildfire Service, for taking care of our firefighters whilst we were in Canada”. Concluded Abrahams.

Canada has since moved to National Preparedness Level 2, a clear indication that their wildfires were subsiding and that most of the fires that were burning earlier this month were either extinguished or under control.

There was high praise from various people within the Manitoba Wildfire Services for the work ethic and morale of the South African firefighters. The Operations Chief (Manitoba Wildfire Services) at Loon Straits spoke highly of the team’s performance and indicated that he has learned so much form the South African firefighters.

“It was a pleasure to work with such a fine team of firefighters. They showed extreme professionalism and hardworking skills. Any objective was accomplished immediately and effectively. Every crew member was always smiling, even when they were placed in wet swamps and difficult working conditions. Everyone enjoyed camping on the line along the fire. This was my first time, as a Manitoba Firefighter to have the chance to work SA Crews. It was a rewarding experience I will never forget. I learnt so much about the culture and many similarities and different challenges we face in our respective countries. Safe travels to all SA Crews and overhead”, Warren Toderan, Operations Chief – Loon Straits Complex (Manitoba Wildfire Services)

Source: Government of South Africa