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Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says New Zealand is sending a seven-person specialist team to Manitoba in Canada to support the country’s response to severe wildfires.
“Canada is dealing with an intense and escalating wildfire season, with fires raging across multiple provinces,” van Velden says.
“More than 20,000 people have been displaced from their homes.
“The scale of these fires is hard to imagine, with just one of the fires having burnt 300,000 hectares. That’s almost two Stewart Islands.
“At the request of the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, Fire and Emergency New Zealand’s specialist team will support the firefighting effort by managing Canadian fire crews and overseeing safety and logistics.”
The deployment will mark 330 personnel deployed to North American wildfires since the establishment of Fire and Emergency NZ in 2017, she says.
“Fire and Emergency NZ remains in close contact with Canada, and I’m advised they expect to be sending a larger firefighting task force later this week.
“I want to thank these firefighters who are offering their support to our Canadian counterparts at this time.
“Their efforts will make a real difference to the communities in Canada.”
