07/10/2015
Firefighters from Kekana Gardens at the Dinokeng Nature Reserve were recently invited by the Canadian government to assist with fighting wildlands fires.
The Working on Fire programme General Manager in Gauteng, Mr Stephen Boyes, said he was proud that fire fighters from South Africa were able to do exceptional work in Canada. The team was deployed to British Columbia and Alberta provinces in Canada. Within the first two weeks in Canada, the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) released a positive Crew Performance Report which lauded the South Africans team for their physical fitness, productivity, health, safety and mopping up operations.
One of the firefighters, Mr Lesego Ringane, said the operation entailed fighting fire by digging from the ground because the fire was burning roots with no flames. “That was quite new to me and crew.’’ He said the experience was an eye opener because the team had never tackled underground fires before. He said they worked hard to find the hotspots of underground fires. ‘‘We were digging to identify fire spots,’’ he said.
Another crew leader, Mr Jonas Matlala, from Pankop said he noticed that there are few female firefighters there than in South Africa. Firefighting in Canada also consumes a lot of water. ‘‘We had to search roots that are burning and use more water to douse them out,’’ he said.
The team said while they were there for two weeks, they missed home cooked meals like pap and meat. Singing while working is one of the memories they have left behind. ‘‘On the day we left, the Canadian were crying because of the impression we had created and because we were the only African team,” he said.
Mr Boyes said the assistance rendered by the South African fire fighters to Canadian was remarkable.