Riverina's Anthony Post, Aileen Honeyman, Colleen Taylor deployed to Canadian wildfire fight

Anthony Post, a 39-year veteran with Forestry Corporation, and five colleagues flew out of Sydney last week alongside volunteers and personnel from the Rural Fire Service, National Parks and Wildlife Service, Fire and Rescue NSW and the NSW State Emergency Service.

Mr Post one of a string of Riverina personnel to make the journey, with a number of the region's SES volunteers already having flown out.

Canadian support often comes during Australia's fire season and that is returned in the North American season. Already 2200 fires have burnt in Canada in the wildfire emergency, and 220 firefighters and incident controllers from Australia have joined the effort.

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"Canadian crews have often been part of these campaigns in Australia as summer term employees and this is my chance to give back and assist in their firefighting effort," Mr Post said.

"I am looking forward to experiencing their different firefighting techniques and methods and sharing ours."

Wagga's Colleen Taylor is in the middle of her deployment, while Hay's Aileen Honeyman has just started a five-week stint in Alberta to assist with supply coordination.

Finance and logistics officer with Wagga SES, Ms Taylor remembers her time working with Canadian firefighters in Tumut.

"I did say to them when I was working with them, I'd like to return the favour one day," Ms Taylor said.

Mrs Honeyman, a logistics specialist from the Hay SES unit, also left last week.

"It is always a great learning opportunity to work alongside highly skilled and trained people from other organisations," she said.

"The highly skilled group that have been deployed before me will be able to provide sound knowledge on what's going on and working alongside them will be highly beneficial for anyone to gain experience working on deployment."

Keeping frontline firefighers supplied and equipped with everything from personnel and resources to accommodation and sustenance is her priority.

"It's very fast paced, and you have to think on your feet a lot of the time to get things done efficiently and effectively," she said.

Forestry Corporation firefighters who flew out with Mr Post include Vince Bolton from Grafton, Jamie Harris from Wauchope, Jarod Addinsall from Eden, Dave Anderson from Bathurst, and Matt Model from Bonny Hills.

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