Canadians, Kiwis bolster Australian fire efforts

A group of 74 Canadian Arduous Firefighters and Incident Management Teams from Alberta Wildfire and British Columbia Wildfire Service have just arrived in Victoria, Australia, to help fight ongoing bushfires across the state.

These crews are a part of 1300 interstate and international firefighters and IMT personnel brought in to support local crews in a week that has seen record breaking heat across southern Australia.

Victorian Emergency Management Commissioner Tim Wiebusch said there were multiple out-of-control bushfires burning across Victoria, including the Carlisle River fire in the Otways and the Walwa and Dargo fires in the state’s north-east.

Although the extreme temperatures had slightly eased in southern districts – along with some of the fire activity – the northern parts of the state and into New South Wales were still facing persistent heat. So far this bushfire season, more than 400,000 hectares of land has been affected.

The number of people on deployment has fluctuated over the days, but as of earlier this week 342 interstate support personnel were in Victoria in addition to the internationals:

  • 38 from Western Australia
  • 31 from Australian Capital Territory
  • 127 from New South Wales
  • 34 from Northern Territory
  • 12 from Queensland
  • 100 from South Australia

Wiebusch said the Canadians would stay for a month “bringing a very welcomed boost in capacity to allow us to rotate and rest local teams.”

“The Canadians will help manage and fight remote fires in the Wonnangatta and the Wabba Wilderness in regional Victoria. Amazing commitment to travel significant distance and be away from family and friends for this long period…We can’t thank you enough.”

The Canadian teams will join New Zealand crews already on these fires.

Canadian deployment to fires in Victoria, Australia, January 2026.

Alberta Wildfire has deployed 37 personnel, including 20 firefighters and 17 wildfire management specialists, to Australia for 30 days to support wildfire response efforts.

Alberta, British Columbia and Australia share a long-standing partnership in fighting wildfires, with 1410 firefighters and support staff deployed to Canada in the last three years.

This map shows the incredible, and in some cases unprecedented, temperatures in southern Australia on Tuesday 27 January.

Extreme temperatures across southern Australia, January 2026. Source: Bureau of Meteorology.

Parts of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia all exceeded 48°C /118F, which is rare for these states, even during severe summer heatwaves.

Significant, long standing temperature records were broken on Tuesday, highlighting just how far from ‘typical summer weather’ these temperatures were:

• Walpeup and Hopetoun both reached 48.9ºC yesterday, which was Victoria’s hottest temperature since observations began.

• New South Wales’s second hottest temperature on record was tied when Pooncarie reported 49.7ºC/121.7F.

• South Australia’s fourth hottest temperature on record was reached in Renmark, as it reached 49.6ºC/121.3F.

Thermal data acquired by the Copernicus EU Sentinel‑3 Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer highlight the severity of the ongoing heatwave across Australia, with extreme land surface temperatures (LST) detected over large regions.

In Willcania and Broken Hill, recorded land surface temperatures ranged between 58 and 60 °C (136-140F), whereas Adelaide appeared cooler, with temperatures of 45–48 °C, likely due to its proximity to the sea.

Australia’s record heatwave as seen from space, January 2026. Source: European Space Agency.


Credits: Copernicus Sentinel data (2025), processed by ESA 

Australian and New Zealand firefighters head to Canada as part of years-long partnership

The British Columbia Wildfire Service recently welcomed a group of 60 IMT members and specialized personnel from Australia and New Zealand to assist throughout the province. Another 30 went to Alberta.

The firefighters arrived in Canada as part of a years-long partnership through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC).

“The relationship between the B.C. Wildfire Service and Australia is  longstanding, extending more than 15 years of mutual aid, support, and knowledge transfer,” they said. “The first instances of support started during the 2007 wildfire season in Australia, when B.C. assisted by sending more than 60 personnel to support fire suppression efforts.”

CIFFC is a not-for-profit group operated by Canadian wildland fire management partners and shares resources and mutual aid throughout the nation and internationally using the Canadian Interagency Mutual Aid Resource Sharing (MARS) Agreement — and the Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council during wildfire seasons. CIFFC has a similar agreement with the U.S.

During the catastrophic 2021 season in British Columbia, the B.C. Wildfire Service was able to rely on these arrangements to request support from other Canadian provinces, the federal government, Mexico and Australia. CIFFC supports this coordination of resources.

current Canada fires

Fire officials attribute the strong relationship between the nations to a shared understanding of how to approach emergency management.

“The agencies operate similarly in terms of warning systems, collaboration, and information sharing. We share a lot in common when it comes to fire behavior as well. Large bushfires and wildfires that can cause significant impact to close-by communities and property, hot dry and windy conditions, and fires with ability to grow quickly are not uncommon for the two nations.”

Nine of the 90 total firefighters came from the South Australian Country Fire Service (CFS), according to the South Australian government; the deployment could last up to 40 days.

“I feel humbled and honored to have this opportunity to travel to Canada to support their firefighters in a time of need and to deploy the skills I have learned over the years and to learn some new ones,” CFS Divisional Commander Phil Tapscott said. “These opportunities always reaffirm that what we do here in the CFS is of a very high quality.”

Around 883 wildfires have burned in British Columbia since the beginning of the year, according to the BC Wildfire Service list. Of those, 349 are still burning and 211 are considered out of control; 16 evacuation orders in 2024 have been issued.

Alberta has recorded 927 wildfires this year, 161 of which are labeled “active” and 53 of which are “out of control,” according to the province’s wildfire status dashboard.

Briefing on working in B.C., topics from radio communications to safety around wildlife.
Briefing on working in B.C., topics from radio communications to safety around wildlife.    ~BC Wildfire Service

in wildfire management

Fire on New Zealand’s Matakana Island

SunMedia reported that emergency services are responding to a large fire on Matakana Island. “Fire and Emergency was alerted to a forest fire on Matakana Island near Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty at 7.36pm this evening,” said Fire and Emergency Shift Manager Garreth Lewis. The fire was  approximately 300 x 300 meters early on, but was very visible from the mainland.

Brigades from Matakana Island and Greerton were responding and the fire plume was seen from across Tauranga, with SunLive readers in Pahoia, Matua, and Maungatapu saying they can view it from their properties.

“We have multiple crews that will respond to the fire tomorrow morning by barge,” said Lewis, and a helicopter on scene at first light.”

Matakana Island

Matakana Island

New Zealand fire
New Zealand fire
New Zealand fire

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Empty water bucket contributed to New Zealand helicopter crash

New Zealand’s Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) has determined that an empty water bucket contributed to the cause of a fatal helicopter crash on February 14, 2017.

David Steven Askin was piloting a helicopter for Way To go Heliservices working on a wildfire near Christchurch when it went down in the Port Hills.

Steve Askin
Steve Askin. Way To Go Heliservices photo.

The TAIC determined that a cable from the water bucket struck the tail of the Eurocopter AS350-BA.

The TAIC explained:

In the early afternoon, one of the helicopters, a Eurocopter AS350 ‘Squirrel’, registered ZK-HKW, crashed while the pilot was returning to the dipping pond to refill the firefighting ‘monsoon’ bucket. The helicopter was destroyed and the pilot was killed. Evidence shows that the likely cause of the crash was the empty monsoon bucket swung back into the tail rotor, damaging the tail rotor and causing the loss of the vertical stabiliser from the tail boom. After the loss of the vertical stabiliser, the helicopter gradually rolled to the right and descended until it struck the ground.

The TAIC’s investigation was aided by video from a camera mounted on the aircraft which showed the bucket swinging up toward the tail as the helicopter was enroute to a dip site.

Below is an excerpt from the Stuff website:

An abbreviated mayday call was heard by several pilots about 2.05pm, but it was not clear which radio frequency the call was made on.

The air attack supervisor asked for a role call of all aircraft involved. Askin did not respond.

After a brief search, another pilot found the wreckage of Askin’s helicopter on a steep slope near the head of a gully east of Sugarloaf.

According to TAIC’s report, the helicopter had struck a steep, tussock-covered slope. Main rotor strikes on the slope indicated the helicopter had tumbled further down the slope.

TAIC recommended several solutions, including using heavy ballast slings, and having someone monitor the operation from the ground.

Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Chad.
Typos or errors, report them HERE.

Wildfire threatens Christchurch, New Zealand

Christchurch fire new zealand

Above: @Howesaman took this photo as she flew in to Christchurch from Wellington.

(UPDATED at 9:05 a.m. MST February 16, 2017)

The wildfire at Christchurch, New Zealand was slowed by light rain Thursday night and more precipitation is in the forecast for Friday.

Officials are reporting that 11 Christchurch homes and two outbuildings have been destroyed by the fire and 2,075 ha (5,127 acres) have burned.

Two fires burned together to become the large fire that spread to the suburbs of Christchurch. One was started by an electrical problem and the other originated at a car park. Officials are not speculating as to whether the causes are suspicious.

Approximately 400 homes have been evacuated affecting about 1,000 residents.

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A large wildfire is burning in the suburbs of Christchurch, New Zealand in the Port Hills area. As of Wednesday morning U.S. time it had blackened 4,571 acres (1,850 Ha), destroyed an uncertain number of homes, and required the evacuation of approximately 1,000 residents.

On February 14 a helicopter pilot, David Steven Askin, was killed while working on the fire.

Below is an excerpt from an article at nzherald.co.nz:

Christchurch mayor Lianne Dalziel has told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking that she was “very worried” for Christchurch.

“We’ve been going through what’s happened overnight, obviously there’s been more evacuations so we’re looking at 450 properties approximately that have been officially evacuated, with police doorknocking and the army in support as well, so it is very serious.”

She said people have been reporting seeing the fire very close to their properties near Port Hills.

“It looks as if up to seven properties have been affected by the fire, it’s difficult to say until light arrives to get a full handle on how many properties that have been destroyed.”

Dalziel said the blaze was a “difficult fire”.

“We had two seperate fires, one that started in the Selwyn district, managed as a significant rural fire, then fire erupted on the city side, ultimately the worst fears were realised and the two fires came together yesterday.

“It is close to areas of population.”

Christchurch Fire map
The red dots on the map of the Christchurch area represent heat detected by a satellite February 15, 2017 U.S. time. Smoke can be seen blowing off toward the east. NASA.

The weather forecast for Christchurch on Thursday (Wednesday U.S. time) predicts cooler temperatures in the high 60s F, relative humidity in the high 40s, and winds out of the east-northeast at 3 to 6 mph in the morning increasing to 16 mph in the afternoon.

In 2011 an earthquake centered 6 miles southeast of Christchurch caused widespread damage in the city and killed 185 people.

Firefighting pilot killed in New Zealand helicopter crash

A helicopter pilot was killed February 14 while working on a fire in New Zealand. David Steven Askin was flying the aircraft at a wildfire when it went down in Christchurch’s Port Hills.

Mr. Askin was a pilot and instructor for Way To Go Heliservices, a company based in Rangiora, New Zealand.

Steve Askin
Steve Askin. Way To Go Heliservices photo.

Previously he had been a member of New Zealand’s Special Air Service, a special forces unit of the Army.  He served in Afghanistan and was wounded in a firefight with the Taliban after his unit came to the aid of Afghan police when they were attacked at the InterContinental Hotel in Kabul in a five-hour battle.

Police, the Civil Aviation Authority, and the Transport Accident Investigation Commission are investigating the crash.

There are reports that 15 helicopters were fighting the recent wildfires near Christchurch that have burned 600 hectares (1,483 acres).

Our sincere condolences go out to Mr. Askin’s family, friends, and coworkers.

Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Chris.

Typos or errors, report them HERE.

“Experts” defend hunter accused of starting fire when bullet struck a rock

A controversy is brewing in New Zealand about the ability of a bullet to start a fire when it strikes a rock. Below is an excerpt from an article at TVNZ.co.NZ:

Experts on fires and firearms are offering to help a Dunedin hunter fight the Otago Rural Fire Authority which is fining him over a bushfire. Tom Dodds has been accused of starting the fire, which he called in, and he’s been charged more than $60,000 by the fire authority for the cost of putting it out.

Seven Sharp reported earlier in the week that the fire investigator believes Mr Dodds’ bullet ricocheted off a rock, bounced 80 metres and hit another rock, which caused the fire 45  minutes later.

The programme reported last night it has received a lot of feedback on the case, including expert opinions from fire and firearms investigators.

One was straight to the point, calling the authority’s version of events impossible. Another, with 40 years experience, had never heard of a bullet causing a fire.

Causing a fire 45 minutes later is difficult to comprehend unless it was smoldering before it was detected.

It is a fact, however, that it is possible for a bullet striking an object to ignite a fire. We covered research on this topic in December, 2013:

…This research shows that fires can be ignited by hot fragments of the bullets due to the heat generated when the kinetic energy of the lead, copper, or steel is transformed to thermal energy by plastic deformation and fracturing from the high-strain rates during impact…

Coincidence or not, on Thursday the National Interagency Fire Center in the U.S. distributed this tweet:

In the New Zealand case, it’s probably not sparks from the rock that created a problem, but hot metal from the bullet itself that may have started the fire. It is possible that when the bullet hit the first rock, hot metal fragments were created which flew 80 meters and landed in flammable material. A second rock may not have played a significant part.