Another wave of Canadian firefighters is heading to Australia to help fight the country’s devastating bushfires.
On Thursday, 28 fire management experts departed for Victoria where they’ll take on roles in command, operations, planning, logistics and aviation.
Today, seven fire aviation specialists are off to South Australia.
Finally, 40 more professional wildland firefighters and two fire management staff will head to Victoria.
All three groups will be down under for a 31-day deployment.
Of those 77 personnel, the BC Wildfire Service has confirmed that 26 of them are from British Columbia.
By Sunday, Jan. 19, 2020, 26 additional personnel will have been deployed from across B.C., bringing the total of #BCWildfire staff currently deployed to #Australia to 38. https://t.co/EFqCc2VwmK
— BC Wildfire Service (@BCGovFireInfo) January 17, 2020
These are the sixth, seventh and eighth deployments of Canadian firefighters to Australia this winter, a total of 172 personnel.
The first deployment of Canadians, who left the country on Dec. 3, have now returned home, and the second and third deployments will return home on Jan. 25 and Jan. 29 respectively.
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