Nova Scotia wildfire experts bound for Australia ‘a little anxious,’ but well-prepared

Three Nova Scotia wildfire experts hugged and kissed their families goodbye on Wednesday before boarding a plane bound for Vancouver — and eventually, Australia.

Department of Lands and Forestry staffers Paul Schnurr, Kirk Webster and Terry White will join 24 Canadian firefighters and experts on a month-long deployment to the continent, where more than 100 bushfires are still burning.

As they checked-in for their flight at Halifax Stanfield International Airport, they told reporters they’re focused and ready to work, having researched the various fuels, weather and topography they’ll encounter on the ground.

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“There are different trees, different burning characteristics of those trees — certainly more drought than what we normally deal with here in Nova Scotia, but it’s still fire and the key thing is public safety, and controlling the fire after that,” said Schnurr, a wildfire training officer who will take on an incident commander role in Australia.

“(I’m) a little anxious,” added Webster. “Safety is always the top priority when we’re over there doing the work that we do… Sometimes you need to set that aside and focus on the job you have at hand.”

Webster will act as a planning section chief for Canadian firefighters, determining the day-to-day action plans for hundreds of crew members.

The three Nova Scotians have decades of wildfire management experience under their belts, each having participated in major wildfire operations across Canada, from British Columbia to Quebec. They’ll leave for the Australian state of Victoria on Thursday, and will be joined by an addition 40 Canadian firefighters and two incident management personnel on Sunday.

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Nearly 100 Canadian firefighters and experts have already been sent to Australia under an agreement between the two federal governments to exchange firefighting resources in times of need. This will be the sixth deployment from Canada to Australia this winter — efforts co-ordinated by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.

“It makes me feel good that he’s going to help people, because they’ve come here to help us before,” said 12-year-old Cole White of his father’s departure on Wednesday afternoon.

Terry White, who has deployed to fire wildfires seven times in Canada, will serve as a base camp manager in Australia.

“There’s a lot of different things going on right now — anticipating what we’re going to be into once we arrive down there, as well as making sure things are prepared at home here while we’re gone,” White told Global News.

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In Australia, the Nova Scotians will manage crew sizes that could be as large as 1,000 people. Canadians in those crews are performing a variety of functions beyond firefighting, including crew assignments, fire behaviour analysis, co-ordination of aerial attack, and logistics.

“Australia fires are very, very fast-moving, which doesn’t allow time for things like animals and residents to get out of the way before it passes through an area, so I’d say probably the speed of the fires is a little more of a concern than it would be in other parts of Canada,” explained Schnurr.

To date, the wildfires have killed at least 28 people — including four firefighters — and destroyed more than 2,000 homes. The scorched area is larger than Nova Scotia, bringing thousands of Australians to the streets, demanding stronger climate action from their government.

Researchers estimate the blazes have impacted more than one billion mammals, birds and reptiles since the fall.

With files from The Associated Press and The Canadian Press