Aussie firefighters set to help US
A team of 45 Australian and New Zealand firefighters are set to fly to the United States to help battle wild blazes burning out of control in the western part of the country.
The contingent, which consists of firefighters from Victoria, Western Australia, NSW and the ACT, will first travel to the US national interagency fire centre at Boise, Idaho, for orientation before being deployed to Idaho, Oregon, Washington State and Montana.
It follows a request for assistance from the US after extreme fire conditions.
This is the fourth time since 2000 that fire team leaders from Australia and New Zealand have been deployed there.
"The Americans have seen first hand the support we have provided in the past, and they know that our expertise is fighting forest fires," Mr Sneeuwjagt said.
US fire leaders came to Victoria's aid in the 2003 Alpine fires.
The contingent, which consists of firefighters from Victoria, Western Australia, NSW and the ACT, will first travel to the US national interagency fire centre at Boise, Idaho, for orientation before being deployed to Idaho, Oregon, Washington State and Montana.
It follows a request for assistance from the US after extreme fire conditions.
This is the fourth time since 2000 that fire team leaders from Australia and New Zealand have been deployed there.
"The Americans have seen first hand the support we have provided in the past, and they know that our expertise is fighting forest fires," Mr Sneeuwjagt said.
US fire leaders came to Victoria's aid in the 2003 Alpine fires.
posted by Beecham Motors at
3:22 PM
2 Comments:
The fires out West have been devastating...no rain. Very, very hot.
By
ChrisL, at Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Oh you poor things, I know how that goes :(. Won't be long before we are all on bushfire alert too. Backburning been going on now for weeks, bleh.
By
Beecham Motors, at Thursday, August 10, 2006
Post a Comment
<< Home