West Kelowna company helping Australia amid devastating fires

A West Kelowna company is lending Australia a helping hand in fighting devastating forest fires. 

In New South Wales, Australia, 2019 is proving to be one of the worst fire seasons on record. At the same time, the states of Queensland and New South Wales have both declared a state of emergency.

“The fires in Australia has been unprecedented conditions with high temperatures, and low-relative humidity and widespread fire in New South Wales,” Blair Savage, CEO of Valhalla Helicopters, told Global News on Tuesday.

Savage is the CEO and chief operations manager of Valhalla Helicopters in West Kelowna, and he recently got back from New South Wales.

“While I was there, I experienced extreme fire behavior,” said Savage. “Our typical day consisted of our morning aviation meeting, and then being dispatched with an air attack, out to residential areas for structure protection.”

The air attack helicopters are run by Australians and instruct Valhalla Helicopters where their services are needed.

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Savage has three medium-sized helicopters in New South Wales, along with seven Canadian employees.

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“We provide mainly water bombing services,” said Savage. “Our helicopters carry 1,400 litres of water, with fire retardant provided by (the Australian government).”

Valhalla Helicopters has been operating in Australia since 2010 and Savage says this is the worst fire season he’s seen yet.

“At this point in time, they’ve been experiencing extreme heat waves and fire conditions we’ve never seen before,” said Savage.

He says they typically support ground crews, protecting structures with their water bombs.

Savage also said some of the fires he’s seen in the Okanagan can compare to Australia’s, but not on a mass scale that Australia is currently experiencing.

“We’ve seen small snippets of comparable conditions here in Canada, especially here in the Okanagan,” said Savage. “But they’ve been short lived, where in Australia they’ve seen these conditions for eight weeks.”

According to New South Wales Rural Fire Services, there are currently around 111 bush and grass fires burning across the state, with more than 54 of them uncontained.

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