Two Whanganui firefighters are heading to the challenge of their lives, battling the multiple wildfires raging in Canada.
Fire and Emergency personnel Gavin Pryce and Andy Simons are part of a contingent of 54 firefighters and an 11-strong incident management team that left for Canada yesterday. Another 36 fire personnel
are being deployed in the north and northwest of the United States.
"We'll be there up to 42 days so it's a long deployment," Pryce said.
"We'll be doing 14-day shifts with a small break in between. We don't know exactly where we're going yet but we're likely to be staying in fire camps, sleeping in tents, in pretty remote locations.
"It's pretty exciting. It's been said this is the biggest challenge New Zealand firefighters have ever faced. The whole of Canada is at level 5, which is the highest fire danger.
