BY REGINALD KANYANE

THE First group of the 48 South African fire fighters were welcomed back home on Monday and received overwhelming praises from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) for their high work ethic whilst they were part of international wildland fire fighting teams, fighting multiple fires in Canada during July and August.

The two North West fire-fighters could not held their excitement and willing to share their experience.   Tsholofelo Lorekang, 30, from Vaalkop in Rustenburg, and Julius Saibok were part of the 48 crew members who were made up of participants from the South African Working on Fire programme and have been in Canada, since the 21 July 2015 as part of a resource sharing arrangement between Canadian fire fighting agencies and South Africa.

Following their first two weeks in Canada, CIFFC released a positive Crew Performance Report which lauded amongst others, South Africans for their physical fitness, productivity, health and safety and mopping up operations.

“When they arrived in Canada we knew already that the South African training standards and qualifications were verified against the Canadian, USA, Mexico, Australian and New Zealand systems and our training was way up there, being compatible with international standards.

“Our upbeat and always happy South African crew with their song and dance have been well received in Canada and have even appeared in the local and national media as well as on the Canadian Broadcast Corporation. We have set positive example to the local and international crews on how to build strong morale and teamwork,” Lorekang said.

Provincial spokesperson for Working On Fire organisation, Patricia Maneelo said: “Our crew is excited to be returning back home and once they have spent some time with their families they will be re-joining their respective Working on Fire teams throughout the country. All of them have expressed their joy at having been able to assist Canada with their wildfires and have described their journey as having changed their perspectives on live in general, but they have also learned a lot whilst having been over there,” she said.

Julius Saibok, 25, said it was an eye-opening experience. “I was inspired by my background.  In Mamusa, near Schweizer Reneke there is a Fire Fighters’ centre, so I always visited them and enrolled afterwards. I am armed with Safety Representative and Advanced Induction certificate,” Saibok said.

-TDN

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