North East fire fighters return after fighting fires in Canada

With forest blazes ravaging the country's northwest in recent weeks causing the evacuation of thousands, with four reported dead - two of them firefighters - Australian firies were deployed in July.

Forest Fire Management Victoria's Jarrod Hayse said the men's experience, particularly after the 2019 bushfires in the Border region, put them in good stead with their Canadian counterparts.

"Our firefighters have engaged the fire directly which is a real pat on the back for Australian firefighters, that's the trust and skills and experience that they bring," he said. "Australian firefighters are held in very high regard - they (Canadian firefighters) came to help us in 2019 and we have returned the favour.

"They asked Australia through our National Resource Sharing Centre and we were able to answer that call."

Ovens depot firefighter Casey Healy, who was met by his wife, Rebecca and their two daughters Asher and Isla, said the experience was both rewarding and haunting.

"The first couple of weeks were pretty rough over there because we were having a moment of silence every couple of days to somebody who had died," he said. "So, unfortunately, for the Canadians and some US firefighters, it's been a rough time.

"It's certainly been a long time away from my family, I've never been away from them for that long before.

"I'll probably go home, do some presents with the kids and then probably start resting pretty quickly - it's been a long commute."

Tallangatta firie Dave Jenson, who was reunited with wife Kat, said he was proud to be part of what is considered to be one of the biggest global responses to a fire disaster in history.

"We fought beside Mexicans, Brazilians, there were Costa Ricans, South African crews were over in some parts of Alberta, it was a massive global response to help Canada out and we were part of it," the FFMVic district manager for Upper Murray said.

"We saw different levels of fire behaviour but certainly nothing that we wouldn't have experienced here in Australia."

Missing his wife and sons was the hardest part, he said.

"Me and Kat spoke daily, sometimes twice a day, I mean the world is a small place now, there's so many different mediums - but it's so good to be back," Mr Jenson said.

"I've got two boys who have both grown up and now they're 20 and 23. But I'm dying to see them as well. So we've got we've got a table booked at the pub tonight. And it's going to be beer with the family at the pub."

Mrs Jenson echoed his sentiment. "He's had a very surreal experience in very unfortunate circumstances," she said. "We've been in contact but it's the longest we've been apart in our 34 years together - we're high school sweethearts - it's so good to have him back here safely."

Forest Fire Management Victoria's Mr Hayse said there were still 370 active fires burning in Canada.

"The unique element to this deployment is we've been able to deploy a lot of on ground firefighters that are really at the front there on the ground, they're dealing with the fire or they've been putting in backburns and control lines," he said.

"But we've also provided some incident management team capability to coordinate and manage not only one fire but often multiple fires.

"We were fortunate to be able to utilise the existing skills and experiences that we have within Victoria to supply 148 staff to help out."

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