Bravo Zulu Air Canada 300 South African firefighters are trained and headed to Fort M
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Bravo Zulu Air Canada 300 South African firefighters are trained and headed to Fort M
Good Afternoon All:
I happened to catch Altipiano's post and did some digging on his comments. Thankyou Altipiano for posting this. Apparently the B-777-200 left YYZ for JNB Friday non-stop and had a technical stop in BGI today for fuel and crew change. One of the technical challenges is JNB is around 5600 ASL!
"Air Canada is operating a 777 JHB-YEG.
Bringing in aprox 300 firefighters to assist with the Alberta fires.
Must have been a big shuffle to free up a triple to operate this flight. Let alone the logistical challenge to position crews and resources to handle the operation."
At a business lunch today in Calgary, Calin Rovenescu let it be known that AC is doing the air lift to get 300 fire fighter from JNB to YEG on a chartered 777. He went to discuss the complexities involved with getting an airplane freed from the schedule, and all the regulatory filing done for the charter, right through to crewing the airplane and specialized Mtce personnel because AC does not have the manpower on JNB as they don't fly there. Oh, and the South Africans only got the invite 72 hours ago.
From the 300 business people at the YYC chamber luncheon, Great job to everyone at AC for making the airlift firefighter airlift happen in such short notice.
From the Globe and Mail
300 South African firefighters are trained and headed to Fort McMurray - The Globe and Mail
Geoffrey York
MAGALIESBURG, South Africa — The Globe and Mail
Published Saturday, May 28, 2016 1:15PM EDT
Last updated Saturday, May 28, 2016 11:30PM EDT
When she saw the Fort McMurray wildfire on television, Sibongile Zwane admits she found it frightening. In all her firefighting experience in the South African bush, she had never seen flames leaping across roads and climbing to the tops of tall pine trees.
But on Sunday, after a 10-day boot camp by Canadian trainers, she will be one of 300 South African firefighters flying into Alberta to help fight the massive blaze near Fort McMurray.
“I’m not afraid any more,” the 21-year-old firefighter says. “They’ve trained us on what to expect. I’m strong now. I’m a firefighter and we have to help.”
The mission is the biggest ever non-military deployment of South Africans to help a foreign country. For the exhausted Canadian firefighters, the impressively fit and well-trained South Africans will be a welcome relief.
The South African government sees it as repaying a debt to the Canadian people for their support for the anti-apartheid struggle. But it’s also a strategy for changing the lives of unemployed South African youths. The jobless young men and women were recruited for a government-funded organization called Working on Fire, which has trained 5,000 firefighters to serve in 200 bases across South Africa.
Ms. Zwane, from a small town near Johannesburg, has never travelled outside South Africa before. Indeed she has never even been an airplane before.
But last Monday, the call came from Canada: Firefighters were needed in Alberta. And so on Saturday she was preparing for the 18-hour flight to Edmonton on a chartered Air Canada Boeing 777, which arrived in Johannesburg on Saturday morning to pick up the firefighters.
The huge Alberta wildfire, which forced 80,000 people to flee from Fort McMurray this month, now covers more than 5,200 square kilometres of forest. After more than a month of gruelling work on the blaze, the Canadian firefighters need a break, and the South Africans will help to step into the breach for several weeks.
“That fire is so big and they can’t extinguish it and they need help,” Ms. Zwane said. “I’m excited to go. The Canadians taught us how to extinguish those tall fires with special hoses.”
With a shortage of water and specialized equipment here, the South African firefighters often use “firebeaters” – wooden sticks with a leather pad attached – to beat out a bush fire. But at their boot camp this month, the South Africans learned new techniques for the Canadian fires, using hoses and other water-handling equipment.
Those who were chosen for the latest mission are the fittest and most skilled of the 5,000 in the organization. A few already have Canadian experience from last year, when about 50 South Africans helped fight wildfires in Alberta and British Columbia.
After a month in Canada, the 300 firefighters will take home the equivalent of around $1,500 (Cdn) each. It doesn’t seem like much, but it’s ten times more than their normal monthly stipend in the training program. It will help many of the firefighters to get out of shacks and build new brick homes, get driver’s licenses or enter post-secondary education.
At a farewell ceremony on Saturday at their temporary camp near Johannesburg, the 300 firefighters danced and sang the morale-building songs that they sing daily in the bush. “We are confident, we are excited,” they sang in the Zulu language.
Sandra McCardell, the Canadian high commissioner to South Africa, said the South Africans could help teach Canada how to recruit more female firefighters, since there are so many women among the South African firefighting ranks.
“We are incredibly grateful for the assistance you are providing,” she told the South African firefighters at the ceremony. “It means a lot to us that you would travel so far to help us. Our firefighters are tired. They’ve fought for a month without a break, and the worst of the fire season is still ahead.”
Barbara Thomson, the South African deputy minister of environmental affairs, said the country is proud to be helping Canada. “As South Africans, we feel indebted to the Canadian people,” she told the ceremony.
“These are the people who stood steadfast with us, in making sure that we dismantled apartheid,” she said. “Remember that these are the people who stood on our side in our times of trouble. So today we are paying back.”
The firefighters, mostly recruited from rural areas with high unemployment, have little experience in cities. So as part of their final preparations before flying to Canada, they were given a two-day course in financial management, to help them avoid making mistakes with their limited wages.
“For them, just to get to an international airport is a life-changing experience,” said Llewellyn Pillay, managing director of the Working on Fire organization. “To put them on a plane and send them to a foreign country fundamentally changes their lives.”
In a speech at the farewell ceremony, Mr. Pillay told the firefighters: “The pride of our nation rests on your shoulders. Fly our flag high with dignity and honour. Today starts a journey for all of you, where your lives will be changed.”
One of the firefighters, 22-year-old Denzil van der Merwe, said the Canadian deployment is important to him because his parents have died and he is the main breadwinner for a family of five in his small town in the Western Cape.
“This will be the experience of a lifetime – something that I can tell my children about some day,” he said.
“It’s a high risk and a big challenge, but I think I’m capable. I can prove myself and prove my country. I have joy in my heart. We can show the world that we love what we do. We love to save lives and protect nature
I happened to catch Altipiano's post and did some digging on his comments. Thankyou Altipiano for posting this. Apparently the B-777-200 left YYZ for JNB Friday non-stop and had a technical stop in BGI today for fuel and crew change. One of the technical challenges is JNB is around 5600 ASL!
"Air Canada is operating a 777 JHB-YEG.
Bringing in aprox 300 firefighters to assist with the Alberta fires.
Must have been a big shuffle to free up a triple to operate this flight. Let alone the logistical challenge to position crews and resources to handle the operation."
At a business lunch today in Calgary, Calin Rovenescu let it be known that AC is doing the air lift to get 300 fire fighter from JNB to YEG on a chartered 777. He went to discuss the complexities involved with getting an airplane freed from the schedule, and all the regulatory filing done for the charter, right through to crewing the airplane and specialized Mtce personnel because AC does not have the manpower on JNB as they don't fly there. Oh, and the South Africans only got the invite 72 hours ago.
From the 300 business people at the YYC chamber luncheon, Great job to everyone at AC for making the airlift firefighter airlift happen in such short notice.
From the Globe and Mail
300 South African firefighters are trained and headed to Fort McMurray - The Globe and Mail
Geoffrey York
MAGALIESBURG, South Africa — The Globe and Mail
Published Saturday, May 28, 2016 1:15PM EDT
Last updated Saturday, May 28, 2016 11:30PM EDT
When she saw the Fort McMurray wildfire on television, Sibongile Zwane admits she found it frightening. In all her firefighting experience in the South African bush, she had never seen flames leaping across roads and climbing to the tops of tall pine trees.
But on Sunday, after a 10-day boot camp by Canadian trainers, she will be one of 300 South African firefighters flying into Alberta to help fight the massive blaze near Fort McMurray.
“I’m not afraid any more,” the 21-year-old firefighter says. “They’ve trained us on what to expect. I’m strong now. I’m a firefighter and we have to help.”
The mission is the biggest ever non-military deployment of South Africans to help a foreign country. For the exhausted Canadian firefighters, the impressively fit and well-trained South Africans will be a welcome relief.
The South African government sees it as repaying a debt to the Canadian people for their support for the anti-apartheid struggle. But it’s also a strategy for changing the lives of unemployed South African youths. The jobless young men and women were recruited for a government-funded organization called Working on Fire, which has trained 5,000 firefighters to serve in 200 bases across South Africa.
Ms. Zwane, from a small town near Johannesburg, has never travelled outside South Africa before. Indeed she has never even been an airplane before.
But last Monday, the call came from Canada: Firefighters were needed in Alberta. And so on Saturday she was preparing for the 18-hour flight to Edmonton on a chartered Air Canada Boeing 777, which arrived in Johannesburg on Saturday morning to pick up the firefighters.
The huge Alberta wildfire, which forced 80,000 people to flee from Fort McMurray this month, now covers more than 5,200 square kilometres of forest. After more than a month of gruelling work on the blaze, the Canadian firefighters need a break, and the South Africans will help to step into the breach for several weeks.
“That fire is so big and they can’t extinguish it and they need help,” Ms. Zwane said. “I’m excited to go. The Canadians taught us how to extinguish those tall fires with special hoses.”
With a shortage of water and specialized equipment here, the South African firefighters often use “firebeaters” – wooden sticks with a leather pad attached – to beat out a bush fire. But at their boot camp this month, the South Africans learned new techniques for the Canadian fires, using hoses and other water-handling equipment.
Those who were chosen for the latest mission are the fittest and most skilled of the 5,000 in the organization. A few already have Canadian experience from last year, when about 50 South Africans helped fight wildfires in Alberta and British Columbia.
After a month in Canada, the 300 firefighters will take home the equivalent of around $1,500 (Cdn) each. It doesn’t seem like much, but it’s ten times more than their normal monthly stipend in the training program. It will help many of the firefighters to get out of shacks and build new brick homes, get driver’s licenses or enter post-secondary education.
At a farewell ceremony on Saturday at their temporary camp near Johannesburg, the 300 firefighters danced and sang the morale-building songs that they sing daily in the bush. “We are confident, we are excited,” they sang in the Zulu language.
Sandra McCardell, the Canadian high commissioner to South Africa, said the South Africans could help teach Canada how to recruit more female firefighters, since there are so many women among the South African firefighting ranks.
“We are incredibly grateful for the assistance you are providing,” she told the South African firefighters at the ceremony. “It means a lot to us that you would travel so far to help us. Our firefighters are tired. They’ve fought for a month without a break, and the worst of the fire season is still ahead.”
Barbara Thomson, the South African deputy minister of environmental affairs, said the country is proud to be helping Canada. “As South Africans, we feel indebted to the Canadian people,” she told the ceremony.
“These are the people who stood steadfast with us, in making sure that we dismantled apartheid,” she said. “Remember that these are the people who stood on our side in our times of trouble. So today we are paying back.”
The firefighters, mostly recruited from rural areas with high unemployment, have little experience in cities. So as part of their final preparations before flying to Canada, they were given a two-day course in financial management, to help them avoid making mistakes with their limited wages.
“For them, just to get to an international airport is a life-changing experience,” said Llewellyn Pillay, managing director of the Working on Fire organization. “To put them on a plane and send them to a foreign country fundamentally changes their lives.”
In a speech at the farewell ceremony, Mr. Pillay told the firefighters: “The pride of our nation rests on your shoulders. Fly our flag high with dignity and honour. Today starts a journey for all of you, where your lives will be changed.”
One of the firefighters, 22-year-old Denzil van der Merwe, said the Canadian deployment is important to him because his parents have died and he is the main breadwinner for a family of five in his small town in the Western Cape.
“This will be the experience of a lifetime – something that I can tell my children about some day,” he said.
“It’s a high risk and a big challenge, but I think I’m capable. I can prove myself and prove my country. I have joy in my heart. We can show the world that we love what we do. We love to save lives and protect nature
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But now they are peeved off...
South African firefighters in Alberta ?demobilized? over pay dispute - The Globe and Mail
South African firefighters in Alberta ?demobilized? over pay dispute - The Globe and Mail
