As many as 109 firefighters and management from the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environments’ Working on Fire programme are set to return to South Africa on Thursday, after a successful deployment to Manitoba, Canada,
The South Africans assisted provincial fire fighting authorities with wildland firefighting efforts.
The firefighters and management left South Africa on 10 August.
At the time of their arrival, Canada was experiencing high fire dangers.
Available wildland fire management resources within the country were exhausted and they were on their highest level, National Preparedness Level 5.
The South African firefighting divisions were deployed to various active fires in Manitoba from Friday 13 August.
They were deployed at Loon Straits in the Eastern Sector and the Cold Lake complex in the Western Sector where multiple fires were burning.
