BOISE, Idaho — After a 40-day deployment, international firefighters from New Zealand and Australia are returning back to their home countries. They came to Boise in early August to fight fires.
Peter Gibson, an Australian firefighter, said that over 70 firefighters had come to fight wildfires. On Tuesday morning, those firefighters met at the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) to return their gear and celebrate the end of the year.
“That was a fantastic experience, great hospitality, great people to work with,” Gibson said.
However, just because they are heading home, doesn’t mean the fire situation is less fire. The Northwest and Great Basin areas are on National Preparedness Level 5, according to NIFC. That is the highest in the country, and southern Idaho is located in the Great Basin area.
NIFC said that isn’t unusual for resources to be lower, because the areas have been on such high preparedness levels for so many weeks now. These international crews were able to make up for the resource shortages while they were here – and learn more about fighting fires in different terrains.
“It was quite interesting, definitely a different way of going about business in relation to firefighting,” Gibson said. “Lot of the core elements are actually the same -- same management structure, lot of the terminology is actually similar.”
Gibson said this is his second time coming into the U.S. to fight fires.
‘We’ve had eight previous deployments into the states, and likewise, the U.S. supplying resources into Australia on five separate occasions as well,” Gibson said.
He said he hopes the partnership continues, because they are able to bring their ideas to the U.S., and U.S. firefighters are able to share their ideas with them.
“It was amazing,” Tom Shinihin said. “It was exactly what I expected it to be like in the best possible way. The landscape, the people, the food, it was all fantastic.”