The largest mobilization of human resources in the history of Costa Rica, as part of humanitarian assistance to another country, took place this week, when 102 forest firefighters traveled to Canada to attend to the fires that this country has suffered since last May.
To date, the fires have consumed around 11.7 million hectares with a daily average of more than 600 fires that are out of control. To deal with the situation, Canadian resources have already reached their limit.
Twinning between both nations
“This second support for Canada is the product of the twinning between both nations, which have a memorandum of understanding for mutual assistance and cooperation in forest fire management,” explained Franz Tattenbach, Minister of Environment and Energy.
Tattenbach highlighted the work that the country has done in the last 30 years in terms of fire, as well as the technical capabilities of the forest firefighters of the National System of Conservation Areas of the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE-SINAC) who responded to the call .
An outstanding job
The first group of 40 forest firefighters and two fire management technicians that moved to the North American country did so on June 13. According to the Rainbow Lake fire management authorities, this team did an outstanding job.
Luis Diego Román, in charge of the Operational Plan of Canada, the entire continent has the same training and meets the requirements. At the level of Latin America and the Caribbean, only the National Forestry Commission (CONAFOR) of Mexico, the National Federal Corporation (CONAF) of Chile and SINAC of Costa Rica have the endorsement to intervene in forest fires in this nation.
To send this aid, Canada assumes the costs of air travel, insurance policies, food and lodging; Costa Rica does not make investments of any kind.
