Under the hot sun, 200 members of South Africa’s fire brigade completed their final training before going into action: today they leave for Canada, a country facing unprecedented forest fires.

In the North American country, the flames have consumed 46 million hectares of forest and forced tens of thousands of people to leave their homes. After a brief respite, the fires have doubled in strength and have been ravaging various Canadian provinces since the weekend.

A team of 200 firefighters from South Africa has already been involved in efforts to control the fires in Alberta (west) since last week. Video of their arrival at the airport, showing them singing together, went viral on social networking sites.

So many more will grow in the same province. This support is part of a mutual assistance agreement between the two governments in the event of veld fires (ie savannas, areas with low vegetation in South Africa) or fires in Canadian forests.

On the eve of their departure, in Bobela (north-east), a group in blue and orange uniforms sang encouragingly to two colleagues who were trying to scale a climbing wall. Others were training to unroll pumps or marching laden with 20-kilogram rucksacks full of equipment.

The songs “motivate” and “boost morale,” explained group leader Komane Sewechi, 35. A firefighter for ten years, he says he feels proud of the work he does but also lucky to have found this job in a country plagued by endemic unemployment.

These firefighters came from a program of the Ministry of the Environment in areas of high fire risk, called Working on Fire: it provided for the recruitment and training of young unemployed people, 18 to 35 years old. It was joined by 5,300 young people, 33% of whom were women.

“Let’s go Bokonto!” [σ.σ. η δυνατή γυναίκα, στη γλώσσα των ζουλού]a firefighter called out during training to encourage his fellow firefighter with a pump in hand.

The development in Canada is “significant”, judges Peter van de Merwe, from those responsible for the program: it contributes to the visibility “of our firefighters, who are the youth of our country, and of South Africa”.

Canada has also received aid from France, Spain, Australia and the neighboring US.