• Staff will be mobilized to British Columbia
A total of 108 firefighters from the Mexican National Forestry Commission (CONAFOR) will fly to British Columbia, Canada, to help in the fight against wildfires that have been active in that country for the past two weeks.
Five brigades of 21 firefighters, each under the leadership of a chief of brigade, along with three international technical representatives will be traveling to this provice where 50 wildfires have been reported and have resulted in a loss of up to 379,199 hectares.
This past weekend the staff came together in the national headquarters of CONAFOR in the state of Jalisco, where they received instructions, prepared physically for this task and carried out tests on the tools and equipment that will be used in Canada.
“Fighters come from 22 states around the country. The selection was made based on an assessment of international documentation, training and skills, body mass index, knowledge of the use of GPS and Mark 3 type pump, as well as field experience. All this in order to meet the international standards required”, said CONAFOR´s Fire Management Manager, Alfredo Nolasco.
He explained that once in Canada, the firefighters will adhere to the Incident Command System (ICS) and join international protocols of the North American Forestry Commission (COFAN), of which Mexico is a member.
In January 2017, 58 mexican firefighters aided in a wildfire emergency in Chile. Prior to that, in June 2016, 42 firefighters were sent to Canada to carry out the same task. The staff was based in Edmonton and Fort McCurray for a period of 15 days where 606,000 hectares were affected by forest fires.
"We have sufficient technical and firefighting staff standards, which puts us at an international level and in the eyes of the world. They are ambassadors of our country, having such trained and skilled people who are able help in the fight against forest fires should be a source of pride for Mexico” said Nolasco.
STATISTICS
Staff of the National Forestry Commission of Mexico
5 brigades of 21 firefighters will travel to Canada.
3 fire management technicians who will serve as liaison between regional centers and those working on the field )
A total of 108 Mexican firefighters will be mobilized