TWO Shoalhaven Rural Fire Service members fly out to Canada on Saturday as part of Australia’s latest contingent tackling massive bushfires ravaging the country.
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Shoalhaven district manager Superintendent Mark Williams and Shoalhaven deputy group captain Andrew Fielding are part of 29 personnel who will head to in British Columbia.
Mark will undertake aviation specialist roles, either as air operations manager or air attack supervisor, while Andrew will be working in divisional command looking after the people in the field and getting equipment or resources they require.
“I’ll be looking after all aircraft,” Superintendent Williams said.
“Everything from managing the aircraft, making sure they have everything they require, have the satisfactory equipment and capabilities the need. I’ll also be assisting the guys on the fireground and implementing the plans the management team need via an aviation role. Where necessary I’ll access extra resources.”
Last month, more than 300 bushfires ravaged British Columbia, a province of Canada, with dry weather fanning blazes across swaths of western Canada and the United States.
“They have copped a bit of a hiding,” Superintendent Williams said.
“They also copped it last year as well. The last couple of months have seen some very unfavourable weather and numerous ignitions and those fires have got a hold and got out of control in some situations.
“We have crews over there already from a previous deployment last month and we are going over to boost their numbers again.”
The crews will be away for 42 days.
“I’ve been to New Zealand before but this is a big adventure,” Andrew said.
“It is also going to be a great learning experience.”
While Superintendent Williams has undertaken such operations a number of times previously, he said it doesn’t get any easier for family or colleagues left behind.
“It’s an honour to be able to go over and do this sort of stuff but it is an imposition on the crews locally and also on the families,” he said.
“But we all take pride in what we do and it's a proud moment to not only represent the service but Australia and assist another country.”
Potentially upward of another 100 firefighters will head to Canada next week after further requests for more support.
“They not only have a lot of active fires in British Columbia but they are also concerned about the upcoming weather over there as well,” he aid.
Crews will face a big change from Australian conditions.
They will work 14 days straight on a fire line. A lot of that is remote, so the volunteers will be in a base camp scenario, sleeping in a two person tent.
Each shift is upwards of 14 hours.
Superintendent Williams said the temperatures in British Columbia at the moment were unheard of for Canada.
“Temperatures are up in the high 30s and low 40s, which for us back home in Australia isn’t so unheard of but not in Canada,” he said.
“The topography is similar in parts.They do have some very high mountain ranges but also a lot of pine forests. They have also been decimated by a pine bug kill over recent years and that's also affected the fire situation.
“It will be similar to Australia, in that fire always burns to the same parameters.
“With new people going over there, we have spent a little time working with pine forest plantations and different types of burning regimes. But in general it is pretty much the same.
“We have a lot of very similar, if not equivalent training to the Canadians.”
Andrew said he is looking forward to the challenge.
“I expect it to be similar to what we experience here in Australia, just longer days,” he said.
“We’re use to working 12 hours days and not 14 days straight.
“It will be a steep learning curve.
“My role will be similar to what I do here.
“Every country is different but has got similar objectives and qualifications so I don't expect too much difference.
“Just having that many fires will be testing. We may have one or two big fires a year here, but this is going to be an experience.”