The international collaboration — an interagency support agreement by the federal, provincial and territorial governments — emphasize that most Canadian provinces including Alberta (which currently has a five year average of 747 wildfires) needs all the help it can get.
"As part of a resource sharing agreement between the Canadian provinces, many of the states in US and Mexico, we have a plan in place that if certain areas have a lot of fire and need extra resources, they will come to our aid, as we go to their aid if they have a need," said Lac La Biche County's Wildlife Information Officer, Leslie Lozinski.
Crew member Everardo Zuniga shows off the Mexican emblem on his sleeve
Due to similar training for firefighters and the use of similar equipment, the agreement has been in place for decades. Mexico is not alone in this collaboration, some states of the US and other Canadian provinces also has an agreement with Alberta Wildfire organizations
"We have agreements with other Canadian provinces, few of the American states as well as Mexico. Everybody has been trained and we have been doing it for years," Lozinski said.
Due to a busy start to the season for the province's wildfire officials, the extra help has definitely been a need. It is because of such partnerships and agreements, firefighters are a community, not only across regions and provinces but countries as well, she adds.
"This year for Alberta has been very busy, very early in the season. We started off with a fair amount of significant Wildfires early in May. We were using all of Alberta crews, we got help from our neighbours in BC, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario. The fires continued in Northern Alberta as well as Central Alberta, then we got help from Mexico," said Lozinski.
Hector Trejo is the Agency Representative for Jalisco Firefighters. According to him, it is mainly the terrain that is one of the big difference (and a challenge) for some of the crew members from Mexico battling wildfires in Alberta in comparison to their country.
"The huge difference between Mexico and Canada is field types. It's challenging because it's a different terrain and different field types. Around the Slave Lake area, there's a lot of wet areas but they still burn. So, some of the guys are not accustomed to working with their feet in the water. It's something different for them and fire does behave different there so, that's the challenging part. It's adapting to the new fields," said Trejo.
The Mexican firefighters have fought fires in other parts of Canada before, says Lozinski, as the job of fighting wildfires brings partnerships from across many borders.
"These crews from Mexico were in Ontario last year. Our crews from Alberta have been in the States, they have been in BC, they have been in Ontario. Its just a thing that we do. Wildfire is definitely a community and our crews go back and forth between the various different agencies when required."
The Mexican firefighters were back on the fire lines last Friday, after enjoying the hospitality of the community and the college.
