New Zealand Firefighters Tim Mitchell, Philip MacDonald and Ashton Oliver are part of a small tam that are flying to the US. Photo / Nick Reed
New Zealand Firefighters Tim Mitchell, Philip MacDonald and Ashton Oliver are part of a small tam that are flying to the US. Photo / Nick Reed
A group of 15 New Zealand firefighters will fly out tonight to help contain wildfires that are burning uncontrollably in the United States.
The call went out this week for Kiwi wildfire specialists, and members of New Zealand's rural fire authorities responded within days from around the country.
They fly out of Auckland Airport at 8pm for Los Angeles.
From there the team will make their way to the National Interagency Fire Centre in Boise, Idaho, for a briefing and onward deployment to either Washington, Montana, California or Oregon.
Fires in the hills outside of Omak, Washington. Photo / AP
The fires, raging in those four states of the country's west and north, are currently stretching US resources.
National Rural Fire Officer Kevin O'Connor said wildfires in Oregon and Washington had burned more than 200,000 hectares in the past few days, while fires in California had burned nearly 50,000 hectares this year.
Veteran Philip MacDonald, part of a 16 person incident management team that has just returned from a month-long deployment to Canada on Monday, will be leading the group.
Mr MacDonald put his hand up just two days after returning from northern and central Alberta, where crews worked on remote forest fires for 14 days straight, with only two days of rest before the next two week stint.
After a quick catch up with his wife and three daughters in Auckland this week, he was packing his bags once again.
While it was "very arduous" work, Mr MacDonald said, time went quickly when you were working on fires of that size.
Wildfires light up the ridge above Omak, Washington. Photo / AP
He said danger was a "relative term", as the New Zealand firemen picked for these deployments were all trained specialists who knew how to manage hazards.
It was this expertise that the US came calling for, he said.
"The Americans have asked for particular specialists because they have a shortage of them.
"There's so much fire underway at the moment, that they've actually run short of their own people to fill these roles."
He said New Zealand, Australian, American and Canadian firefighters all train under the same wildfire-fighting system.
"So we're able to go over there and just slot into these positions."
The one major difference was the length of time these fires burn for, he said.
"Most New Zealand fires are over in a week, maybe a couple of weeks of mop up to follow.
"But the American and Canadian fires can burn right through summer, for months on end, until winter comes and a weather event puts them out."
High temperatures, dry conditions and lightning strikes were currently hampering the efforts of thousands of local firefighters and army volunteers in the US.
The New Zealand team will be joined by 60 Australian firefighters, together providing frontline support to local crews.
The Kiwi team specialises in aircraft management and leadership of firefighting crews on the ground.
Mr O'Connor said the firefighters would likely be working in rugged, mountainous terrain.
