Firefighters from Other Countries Coming to B.C.

Tuesday, August 04, 2009 12:01 PM

VICTORIA - With resources stretched to the max, B.C. is now getting set to welcome fire fighters from Australia and New Zealand.

Forests and Range Minister Pat Bell made the announcement earlier today. "The large number of fires is stretching our resources," said Bell. "In addition to the support we already have from other provinces and territories, we are grateful for the assistance from these Australian and New Zealand professionals."

The level of experience that these personnel provide will help maintain the Province's high success rate on containing new fires. They will also augment our response on existing fires by allowing B.C. to redeploy more experienced personnel to supervise newly-trained emergency firefighters and offer crews the chance to take mandatory days off so they can safely rejoin suppression efforts for another cycle of operations.

Twenty-two personnel from Australia's State of Victoria and eight personnel from New Zealand are scheduled to arrive Thursday. They will be assigned to fire duties by the weekend, and are expected to remain in the province for 30 days.

British Columbia has a resource- sharing agreement with the State of Victoria in December 2006. Since then, Australia has engaged B.C. wildland fire personnel on their fires in 2007 and 2009. The agreement provides an exchange of personnel, knowledge,
skills, equipment, technologies and mutual support in the event of an emergency.

The New Zealand contingent is organized through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) in Winnipeg by means of a new agreement established between Canada and New Zealand.

The escalating level of activity in B.C. has required fire officials to call on contingency resources. Approximately 2,000 Ministry of Forests Personnel, 750 B.C. contractors and 850 firefighters from out-of-province, local resources, and hundreds of crews trained under the Emergency Fire Fighter (EFF) program are engaged in fire response and support duties.

B.C. Wildfire Management has been in contact with other countries and the Department of National Defence. Officials have been monitoring the B.C. situation and their capacity. Military involvement is requested only if absolutely required, and only if military assistance does not jeopardize Canada's international commitments. They will be a "last in, first out" resource if required.

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Posted on Tuesday, August 04, 2009 12:01 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: woodwoman on August 4 2009 2:02 PM

Strange that the province needs to import firefighters from other countries and other provinces when forest fire training has been giving to local laid off forestry workers in Prince George (approx. 2 weeks ago) and there seems to be no work for them.
One would think that Pat Bell would want to have these individuals working before importing others.

Posted by: BC Mary on August 4 2009 2:23 PM

Very good question, woodwoman! I hope Ben will phone Pat Bell and get the answer for us.

Quick question: when did big fires in the forests stop being "forest fires" and start being "wildfires"?

And why?

Maybe I'm mistaken, but I thought wildfires happened in prairie grasslands.

Posted by: MrPG on August 4 2009 4:28 PM

Did either of you actually read the article?

I'd suggest you read the third paragraph to start and go from there.

Posted by: gus on August 4 2009 6:14 PM

Right on MrPG!!!! It is amazing that people who live in a forest industry town do not understand that fighting forest fires, especially in hilly terrain, is a VERY dangerous job. Two or three days training is almost zilch. Yup, that's a tree. Yup, that's a fire. Yup, that is a piss can. Now what do I do?

It is cheaper to pool resources from the rest of the world than to train the lead people and have them sit around with pay for cooler summers.

We do the same for them when they are overwhelmed with fires.

Posted by: lmorge on August 4 2009 10:49 PM

There's lots in vancouver right now for the world police and fire games...maybe gordo can offer them some good overtime!

Posted by: foxtrapper on August 4 2009 11:48 PM

high success rate in containing new fires my butt!

Posted by: BC Mary on August 5 2009 6:57 AM

OK, Mr PG and Gus, point taken (and yes, I did read the article) ... seems you have an issue with the inadequate training given to local firefighters. Is that why you think we don't understand the dangers of fighting forest fires in mountainous territory?

Neither of us said "Don't use reciprocal agreements for off-shore firefighters" ... silly.

And, Mr Know-All, how about an answer to that question: when did big fires in the forests stop being "forest fires" and start being "wildfires" which, in my understanding, is a term more accurately applied to prairie grassland fires.