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Canadian Forces sending plane and crew to help fight Australia’s fires

Canadian Forces sending plane and crew to help fight Australia's fires | iNFOnews.ca
In this Jan. 24, 2020, photo provided by the New South Wales Police, smoke rises from an active wildfire near the crash site of a firefighting air tanker near Numeralla, south west of Sydney. Three crew from the U.S. were killed when their C-130 Hercules tanker crashed while fighting wildfires in Australia, their employer, Canada-based Coulson Aviation, said in a statement. NSW Police via AP

OTTAWA – Canada is sending a military transport plane and about 15 personnel to help fight bushfires in Australia.

The Canadian Forces say the CC-17 Globemaster is leaving Monday.

The plane and crew are to transport fire retardant from the United States, free up Australian airlift capacity and take images of fires from the air to measure them and predict how they might spread.

They're going as part of Operation Renaissance, a standing mission that sends military help to other countries coping with natural disasters.

Canada has already sent about 100 firefighters and experts to Australia to help combat the fires that have consumed millions of hectares of bush, particularly in the southeastern part of the country.

Last week a Canadian-owned air tanker crashed as it dropped a load of fire retardant in an alpine valley, killing its three American crew.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 25, 2020.

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Kathy Michaels

Kathy Michaels has been an Okanagan-based journalist for more than a decade, working for community papers along the valley and beyond.
She’s won provincial and national awards in business, news and feature writing and says that her love for telling a good story rivals only her fondness for turning a good phrase.
If you have a story that deserves to be told in a thoughtful and compassionate manner, don’t hesitate to reach out.
To reach Kathy call 250-718-0428 or email kmichaels@infonews.ca.

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