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Sharon Maloney, Betty Robilliard, Jessie Colombani, Matthew Mallett, Anthony Beacham
Over the weekend, five CFA members embarked on a deployment oversees to help fight wildfires currently burning across Canada.
The team departed Melbourne Tullamarine Airport on Saturday (20 July) along with representatives from Forest Fire Management Victoria.
They were briefed, along with other Australian crews in Sydney on Saturday afternoon before travelling onto British Columbia and Alberta on Sunday.
They form part of the Australian and New Zealand support team who are being deployed to help tackle the significant bushfires that have been burning for the last few weeks in western Canada, with the fire prone country already experiencing more than 3200 this season.
Conditions have continued to deteriorate in recent days, resulting in new fires and numerous evacuation orders.
The five CFA members included one Public Information Officer who will be stationed out of British Columbia, and four Incident Management Team (IMT) and aviation members who are travelling to Alberta.
CFA Chief Officer Jason Heffernan has been monitoring the developing fire situation in the northern hemisphere, particularly Canada for the past few weeks.
“We wish our members and partner agencies a safe journey and deployment as they support this significant wildfire event,” Jason said.
“It’s important we continue these cross-border arrangements for sharing personnel and resources. We’re proud of our relationship with these countries and I’m pleased we’re able to provide support.
“I want to thank our members for leaving their loved ones for the next month and I have no doubt they will represent Victoria and Australia proudly.”
Experts are anticipating that fire conditions will remain challenging in Canada over coming weeks, which may see further requests to support them.
