Pretoria - Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa has congratulated the group of Working on Fire (WoF) crew who returned from a successful deployment in Canada.
Minister Molewa lauded them as “patriotic brand ambassadors for South Africa,” whose “world-class fire-fighting skills” were now in demand across the globe.
This is the first successful deployment between Canada and South Africa. It is the result of heightened cooperation and resource sharing agreements put in place by the international fire-fighting community.
“These young South Africans, many of them from marginalized backgrounds, have travelled halfway across the world to help other communities in need, is further testimony to the success of government’s job creation and skills development drive,” Minister Molewa said on Monday.
Working on Fire is a government-funded job creation programme focusing on Integrated Fire Management in South Africa.
The last group of firefighters deployed to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) returned to the country on 24 August 2015. They were part of an international wildland firefighting teams, fighting multiple fires in Alberta and British Columbia in Canada, during the months of July and August. They worked alongside colleagues from Mexico, the US and Australia.
The Alpha crew were among 48 crew-members drawn from the South African WoF programme, as part of a co-operative resource-sharing arrangement between the Canadian and the South African forest fire-fighting agencies. The first group arrived back in the country last week.
The fire fighters were initially deployed to Edmonton, Alberta, from where they were dispatched to assist with the suppression of wildland fires in the heavily forested Slave Lake area.
Once the Slave Lake fire was controlled, the Alpha crew was redeployed to British Columbia, while the Bravo crew remained to complete mopping up operations in Alberta.
Minister Molewa said the South African crews were commended by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) for their levels of fitness, good work ethic and high morale.
They were also well-received in Canada and have even appeared in the local and national media.
“The opportunity to work overseas has allowed our crews to experience not only fire-fighting conditions in different fuel types, but also to work in large fire-fighting operations with a greater range of tools and machinery,” said Nceba Ngcobo, department manager responsible for the WoF programme. – SAnews.gov.za
