Dozens of Canadian firefighters are on their way to Australia to help the country battle wildfires that have left at least 29 people dead.
The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) says that 77 Canadians from across the country are headed down under in response to a request for help by national fire and emergency services in Melbourne.
The request for help is specifically for the states of Victoria and South Australia, according to a CIFFC statement tweeted Thursday.
Canada is sending 77 wildfire fighting personnel to #AustraliaBushfires over the next few days. In total, Canada will have provided 172 firefighting personnel to Australia since the beginning of December to three separate States.@ciffc press release : https://t.co/ZWvDmECVm2
“This is in addition to the Canadian resources that have already been deployed to the State of New South Wales,” CIFFC said in the statement.
The first contingent of Canadians that left in early December is back, they added.
CIFFC spokesperson Melanie Morin said these Canadian deployments, beginning from December, are the first time the agency has sent firefighting help to Australia.
“This is the first time that we’ve gone anywhere internationally other than the United States,” she said in a phone interview from Melbourne on Thursday, where she is part of a team helping coordinate personnel.
On Thursday, 28 fire management personnel were preparing to depart from Vancouver International Airport, bound for the state of Victoria, where at least half a dozen bushfires were listed on the government website along with clusters of grass fires.
Their deployment is slated to last 31 days.
“They will be undertaking roles in command, operations, planning, logistics and aviation,” CIFFC said.
Seven more Canadian fire aviation specialists will depart for 31 days — marking the seventh such deployment from Canada — on Friday to South Australia, where fire danger ratings on the state website range from very high to low-moderate.
The fires have affected the availability of food and water for local wildlife. Local firefighters in South Australia recently posted a video of themselves helping a pair of parched koalas. Similar videos of people helping thirsty koalas have periodically appeared since the start of the wildfire season. The World Wildlife Fund in Australia said last week it estimates more than a billion animals may have been killed directly or indirectly due to the fires.
“How cute is that baby?”
When the koalas can’t come to you, MFS firefighters go to the koalas.
On Sunday, 40 professional wildland firefighters from Canada along with two fire management personnel will head to Victoria for 31 days.
Morin said this is the first time CIFFC is sending frontline firefighters in response to a request by the state of Victoria.
“So we are now sending 40 firefighters that will be leaving Sunday night and arriving Tuesday morning in Melbourne,” she said. Half of them are from B.C., while the other half hail from Quebec.
Australia may have a “different topography, different terrain, different climate” than in Canada, she said.
“But once you have that base knowledge, then it can be transferred and applied here,” Morin said.
The firefighters all come from agencies across the country — B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories, and the Yukon.
All in all, by the time the eighth deployment lands in Australia next week, Canada will have sent a total of 172 fire professionals since early December to three different states in Australia.
“We have 46 from BC, two from the Yukon, 34 from Alberta, four from the Northwest Territories, 11 from Saskatchewan, eight from Manitoba, 28 from Ontario, 25 from Quebec, three from Newfoundland and Labrador, three from Nova Scotia and eight from Parks Canada,” Morin said.
Canada has mutual aid agreements with not just Australia but also New Zealand, the U.S., Mexico and South Africa. It has received similar firefighting assistance in the past.
“Canada has called on Australian support for firefighting personnel in 2015, 2017 and 2018 and we are proud to now reciprocate and assist them during this challenging fire season,” CIFFC said.
The wildfires in Australia have devastated more than 2,500 homes and ravaged an area roughly the size of a third of Germany since they first began raging in September.
EDMONTON – RCMP say a second suspect has been arrested in the killing of an Alberta county worker.
Mounties say 28-year-old Elijah Strawberry was taken into custody Friday at a house on O’Chiese First Nation.
Colin Hough, a worker with Rocky View County, was shot and killed while on the job on a rural road east of Calgary on Aug. 6.
Another man who worked for Fortis Alberta was shot and wounded, and RCMP said the suspects fled in a Rocky View County work truck.
Police later arrested Arthur Wayne Penner, 35, and charged him with first-degree murder and attempted murder, and a warrant was issued for Strawberry’s arrest.
RCMP also said there was a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Strawberry, describing him as armed and dangerous.
Chief Supt. Roberta McKale, told a news conference in Edmonton that officers had received tips and information over the last few weeks.
“I don’t know of many members that when were stopped, fuelling up our vehicles, we weren’t keeping an eye out, looking for him,” she said.
But officers had been investigating other cases when they found Strawberry.
“Our investigators were in O’Chiese First Nation at a residence on another matter and the major crimes unit was there working another file and ended up locating him hiding in the residence,” McKale said.
While an investigation is still underway, RCMP say they’re confident both suspects in the case are in police custody.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
RICHMOND, B.C. – The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says the 26-year-old son of a man found dead on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast has been charged with his murder.
Police say 58-year-old Henry Doyle was found badly injured on a forest service road in Egmont last September and died of his injuries.
The homicide team took over when the BC Coroners Service said the man’s death was suspicious.
It says in a statement that the BC Prosecution Service has approved one count of first-degree murder against the man’s son, Jackson Doyle.
Police say the accused will remain in custody until at least his next court appearance.
The homicide team says investigators remained committed to solving the case with the help of the community of Egmont, the RCMP on the Sunshine Coast and in Richmond, and the Vancouver Police Department.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, have broken off without an agreement following 15 hours of talks.
Joe McCann, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they stayed at the bargaining table with help from a mediator until 2 a.m. Friday and made “some progress.”
However, he says the union negotiators didn’t get an offer that they could recommend to the membership.
McCann says that in some ways they are close to an agreement, but in other areas they are “miles apart.”
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people who can’t navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last week, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
McCann asks HandyDART users to be “patient,” since they are trying to get not only a fair contract for workers but also a better service for customers.
He says it’s unclear when the talks will resume, but he hopes next week at the latest.
The employer, Transdev, didn’t reply to an interview request before publication.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
