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Australia has sent its fire personnel to Canada four times over the past several years as Alberta and B.C. grappled with severe fires, Morin said. The opposite fire seasons and a shared use of a standardized incident command system make it easier to share resources across countries, she said.

Help from outside the province or the country is “always much appreciated” by crews that might be affected by the fires themselves, added Morin, who worked throughout the devastating 2018 B.C. wildfire season.

“When we did have big seasons out West, sometimes it starts early, and you can see the rest of the summer going ahead of you and you just have no idea when it’s going to end,” she said. “So getting fresh hands, fresh eyes, people who are ready to jump in … they are a great relief and really, really a great help.”

Photo by SAEED KHAN/AFP via Getty Images

Australian firefighters have been grappling with more than 120 days of continuous fire activity, she added. It’s just the beginning of their summer, with months of soaring temperatures remaining after the continent’s driest year on record, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

The United States has also sent about 100 fire personnel to help fight the fires alongside the New South Wales Rural Fire Service, which has 74,000 volunteer members.

The Canadians crews will not be battling fires on the ground, instead providing incident management services in command, operations, logistics and aviation roles. Specific jobs include operations chiefs who help determine tactics and strategy, air attack supervisors, and fire behaviour analysts trained in meteorology and fire science to help predict a fire’s path. All are certified to use the incident command system.