EDMONTON -- Nine Alberta firefighters flew out Monday to Queensland, Australia, to help fight wildfires that have killed 10 people and destroyed thousands of homes.
The nine were part of a 15-person Canadian deployment the day before New Year’s Eve.
Another 21 Canadian firefighters will fly out next week.
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According to a government official, they’ll spend about six weeks there before returning home.
Canada will continue to send crews as long as volunteers can be found and as long as Australia requests help, officials said.
The country’s bushfires have been burning for months, but a new heatwave and high winds have wrought new devastation.
On Monday, around 100,000 people were urged to flee five Melbourne suburbs as the spiralling bushfire crisis killed a volunteer firefighter battling a separate blaze in the countryside.
Another volunteer firefighter and eight other people have also died in the fires.
Authorities in Sydney downgraded an earlier bushfire emergency warning but said residents should steer clear of the blaze, which has burned through 40 hectares of grassland.
A first group of firefighters from Alberta first flew out to Australia on Dec. 5.
With files from Andrew Beatty for AFP
