‘When our mates need help, Australia is there’: Canada gets help fighting wildfires

People stop along a highway as a large active wildfire fills the sky with smoke in the background in the La Ronge, Sask., area in an undated handout photo. (Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency)

As wildfires continue to burn from northwest Ontario to British Columbia, Canada is getting help from near and far, and very far.

Southern Highlands - New South Wales Rural Fire Service in Australia says a 96-personnel-strong Australian contingent of firefighters and specialists have deployed to Canada for five weeks.

The service says the deployment is in response to a request from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says in a tweet that, “When our mates need help, Australia is there.”

A post on social media platform X from the official account for the Australian High Commissioner to Canada, Kate Logan, says the crews “are on their way to support their Canadian colleagues battle wildfires in Alberta.”

In Manitoba alone, the number of evacuees from fires has reached 21,000, and crews have come from other provinces and the United States.

“Thank you to our brave Aussie firefighters heading to help battle the Alberta wildfires in Canada. Stay safe and thank you for your service,” Albanese said on the social media platform X on Monday.

Australia also sent firefighters to Canada in 2024 to help fight a massive blaze that forced the evacuation of Jasper National Park, as well as other fires earlier that month in British Columbia.

The Yukon government, meanwhile, says it is sending 20 sustained-action firefighters to fight wildfires in Alberta and will be there for nearly three weeks.

Thousands also remained out of their homes in Saskatchewan and Alberta, including between 10,000 and 15,000 in Saskatchewan alone.

In British Columbia, the provincial wildfire service said Monday that crews were preparing for “extreme fire behaviour” in the province’s northeast as a second dry cold front was forecast to move through.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 10, 2025.

Rob Drinkwater, The Canadian Press