Cape Town - A jovial crowd singing, dancing and the sight of familiar faces awaited a group of Working on Fire (WoF) firefighters and their management team, as they were warmly welcomed home by colleagues and supporters following a month’s stay in Canada to assist in wildfire suppression and management efforts.
The fourth deployment this year, consisting of 215 members, arrived at the Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport, Mbombela, yesterday.
For Thandile Joseph, 28, Crewleader type 1 from Vredenburg Base in the Western Cape, it was a second deployment to Canada this year, with the previous one in June/July – the first deployment outside of the country for Joseph.
For him, the most interesting part of the deployment was travelling overseas, and once there, using tools such as a pulaski (a form of axe) and shovels, not used by firefighters in South Africa.
“The challenging part was that we had to spend 14 hours on the fire line, which we are not used to in South Africa.
“Second, we fought fires underground, digging 1.8m underground when it was required.
“We experienced a lot of pit ashes and we had to live with WoF values, which are adaptability, accountability, discipline and responsibility.”
Working on Fire is an Expanded Public Works Programme within the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, employing more than 5 000 young people fully trained as wildfire firefighters and stationed at more than 200 bases across the country.
The returning members were deployed to British Columbia, Canada on August 25, and formed part of a larger contingent of 860 South African firefighters and managers.
The 860 members provided support to Canadian counterparts in Alberta, Northwest Territories and British Columbia since the start of June.
After their arrival yesterday, a homecoming ceremony was held at Kishugu Training Academy, Mbombela.
WoF provincial communications officer Limakatso Khalianyane said 97 members (firefighters and management) from the Western Cape had been deployed through the four deployments to Canada this year.
“Some of our firefighters have been deployed twice this year. Today (Monday), we have 24 firefighters (from the Western Cape) coming back.”
The deployment came in response to an urgent request from the Canadian Inter-agency Forest Fire Centre in terms of the existing memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Canada and South Africa.
The MOU, signed in 2019, allows for the exchange of wildland fire management resources between the two countries and was put in place following two prior deployments in Alberta and Manitoba in Canada.
According to WoF, Canada recorded more than 6 330 fires this year, resulting in the destruction of over 17 million hectares of land.