City’s brave firefigthers welcomed home from Canada
After two months of fighting underground fires in Canada, five brave men (and woman) were welcomed back on Friday.
MBOMBELA – Chants and traditional dances welcomed home five local firefighters from Working on Fire (WoF) on Friday after almost two months of fighting wild bush fires in two Canadian provinces.
It was this same song and dance which made Messrs Zakhele Vilakhazi, Thomas Luphoko, Gift Magwalivha, Eso Nkosi and Ms Constance Mavuso, among other South African WoF workers so popular on their mission to Alberta and British Colombia.
Read more about WoF’s fire fighters here:
‘n Vliënier met ‘n besonderse roeping
A total of 48 South Africans were deployed to help in these two regions. They were praised by all parties involved for their inextinguishable optimism and work ethic.
“Yes, the Canadians loved us because we sang for them and demonstrated a traditional African dance,” Mavuso told Lowvelder. “We even taught them a gumboot dance.”
They carried with them smiles of satisfaction and fatigue when they arrived at Sonpark after landing at OR International Airport on Friday.
The WoF employees were dispatched to Canada on July 21 as part of a resource-sharing policy between Canadian and South African firefighting agencies. It was the first time WoF South Africa was called to assist Canada with runaway fires. Australia, New Zeeland, Mexico and the United States were among the other countries who were also summoned to help fight the runaway fires which had already destroyed more than 35 000 hectares of land.
“We learnt so much, not only from the Canadians, but from the fire fighters from all the other countries too,” Mavuso said. “It was a fantastic experience, but we are happy to be home now. we worked hard but at least our mission was successful as we managed to detain most of the fires.”
Four more WoF employees from WoF’s Mbombela branch returned home on Monday.
