Fire boss feels heat in Canada

Kevin Ihaka (far right) with firefighters in Canada.

Coordinating the deployment of firefighters by helicopter to large forest fires in Canada has tested Kevin Ihaka's mettle as an experienced firefighter.

The principal rural fire officer for Whangarei and Kaipara got back home from Canada yesterday after a 35-day deployment as part of 16 firefighters from rural New Zealand to help battle raging blazes in Alberta, where fires have torn through more than 800,000ha of forest.

Mr Ihaka and Diane Sanderson, of the Department of Conservation's Dargaville office, were two Northlanders who directed crews and logistics on the ground.

Kevin Ihaka at the site of one of the fires.

He was the operations' section chief, responsible for tactics and assignment of resources while Ms Sanderson was the head of logistics and was responsible for ordering all resources needed for a large fire.

Their team managed four fires called the Birch Complex totalling about 83,000ha spread across about 200sq km about 100km away from their base.

Mr Ihaka said flying crews and resources to and from fire sites due to no vehicle access was a challenge.

"One of the things that gave us problems was the rain. Thunderstorms were relatively frequent so the accessibility of getting people to and from the fire sites was reduced.

"We've had to constantly monitor the weather. There were a couple of new fires in our area which we had to get to pretty quickly."

Mr Ihaka said it was the first time New Zealand had sent a complete management team and he was satisfied of the job the kiwi firefighters performed as coordinators.

"The Canadians were pretty tired and worn out and the purpose of us going was to give them some rest. It's still happening in British Columbia ... it's not over yet for those guys," he said.

Mr Ihaka said there were 230 firefighters from Canada, Australia, United States and New Zealand in camp during the first set of fires and about 100 later on.

He spent the first few days getting his head around what was happening on the ground.

Although he had fought larger fires in Australia, Mr Ihaka said the geographical spread of the Canadian fires made them tricky to fight.

And apart from a bear roaming near their makeshift tents early in their deployment, Mr Ihaka said there were no issues from their stay.