New Zealand F/Fs Headed to U.S. Wildfires

[superchef]

The Associated Press

A team of 10 New Zealand rural firefighters was heading to the United States on Thursday to help fight wild fires in western states, a senior official said.

Another group of 10 firefighters left earlier in the month to bolster firefighting numbers as dozens of fires burned in the dry west.

Internal Affairs Minister Rick Barker said a further request for assistance was received from the United States Multi-Agency Coordination Group, and New Zealand was responding to that request.

The staff being deployed have been drawn from the Department of Conservation and the New Zealand Fire Service.

"We expect that the 10 going today, making 20 in total, will be away a further 20-30 days depending on the conditions there," he said in a statement.

New Zealand, Australia and the U.S. share mutual assistance agreements to help each other with specialist wildfire fighting capability in times of need. The agreements stipulate that the host country pays for any deployment.

Barker said while New Zealand provides extra capability at times of extreme fire conditions in the U.S. and Australia, its rural firefighters gain experience in working on large incidents.

In time of need, New Zealand knows it will receive the same support, he added.


Take care, stay safe all and THANKS!! Should you make a pit stop in San Francisco, dinner is on me.

[BFDNJFF]

Thats one heck of a mutual aid response time ! LOL

[MarcusKspn]

Command to New Zealand Strike Team: What is your ETA

[GFDLT1]

I wonder if the brothers from New Z. use the same terminalogy as the brothers from Cali and out west in regards to NIMS type stuff? Can any brothers from the Kiwi country provide further?

[FlyingKiwi]

1. ETA is when the plane landed many moons ago.

2. NZ uses SIMS, which is our equivalent of your NIMS. The people sent will be team leaders and up to area management type people.

We have sent many teams in the past to both Aussi and the US, so pre-flight information is available as well as briefing on the ground when they assimilate into their jobs.

On their return a debreif and report will be prepared for management and any techniques, tricks, pearls of wisdom etc passed onto the rest of the FF's around the country.

it is a good system as they get out of season experience to brush (excuse the pun) up on their skills.


From NZ Herald on 11 August....

American firefighters take a break and a well-earned drink before being joined in their battle against wildfires by 10 New Zealanders who left yesterday for the US.

The Kiwis will meet up with 40 Australians, and they'll help to control the huge numbers of fires that break out during the dry season.

Southland officer Mike Grant said the trip followed an agreement between Australia, New Zealand and the US to help each other where firefighting resources were stretched to the limit. August was traditionally a dry month in the US, he said. "Most of the fires start after lightning strikes in tinder-dry conditions. When firefighting resources are stretched, supervisory experience is needed most."

About 50 major fires are raging in the northwest corner of the country including Idaho, Montana, Washington State, Oregon and Northern California.

[Dickey]

Now that is a mutual aid agreement!

It's pretty cool we can all get along that well. Did not realize that sort of thing happened.

[wombat]

US and Australiasia

More info on this entry I started some years ago

http://forums.firehouse.com/showthread.php?t=24851

which appears to be working OK.
The best example of mutual aid is one Region 8 developed over 10 years ago with a small tropical Pacific Island. They help train their guys, a former staion officer this our end has the chiefs job over there, and if they lose any gear it must have been sent on a sea voyage. If disaster really strikes then transferring crew is easy as they have many of the old rigs and they are always welcome over in here.

No and it wasn't Vanuato but somewhere not far away.
Not my place to create an international incident.

We all stuff up occasionally. The bigger the organisation the bigger the stuff up. Look at FEMA.

[FlyingKiwi]

Wombat

Would that be Vanuatu?

They p!ssed the locals off royaly with a bad miss about November last year.

A rather famous water front restaurant caught fire, truck took 20 minutes to get there ("slight problem finding da keys Boss").

Once there they remembered the truck had no water in the tanks (it was drained becuase of the weight on the suspension when sitting still)

1/2 an hour to go fill da truck.

Back again (with water), hoses were perished and kept splitting, had to send a local PD back to the station to get the shiny new hoses they didn't keep on the truck(well what did you expect, we don't want them to get dirty).

End result was no more restaurant.

I must confess to have been wetting my pants when told this story by a prominant business man in the community who had been watching the events unfold on the day.

Nothing like a good yarn over beers at the waters edge.

Credit where it is due, The Aussie Govt has since replaced the truck with an ex Brisbane rig (from memory) and upgraded a lot of the gear.

[CALFFBOU]

Yo-

Where in the Western states are they heading? Because...

#1. If they stop in California, they need to visit In-N-Out Burger.


2. If they go the fires in Nevada, they need to stop at the Moon Light Bunny Ranch off of highway 50 near Carson City in Lyon County near the automotive garage. (so I've heard )



-Bou

[Dickey]

2. If they go the fires in Nevada, they need to stop at the Moon Light Bunny Ranch off of highway 50 near Carson City in Lyon County near the automotive garage. (so I've heard )


-Bou

Now why in the world would anyone want grilled bunny rabbits???
Guess you could go there while your car is being worked on in the garage...
Service while you wait??

[CALFFBOU]

So- Where did they go? North Nevada, Elko area?

PS- Bump too. I changed a picture in my other posting.

[SFD13]

I think some of them are working in Washington State up by the border with Canada along with some Parks Canada fire fighters.