2026 Australia and New Zealand mobilization
In July 2026, Australia and New Zealand sent personnel to assist the United States with wildfire suppression across the Pacific Northwest. The National Multi-Agency Coordinating Group, located at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, requested the international assistance. The 74 fire management specialists from Australia and New Zealand arrived in the U.S. this past weekend and, over the next 30 days, will support ongoing wildfire suppression efforts.
This year’s mobilization is particularly noteworthy as it includes a 15-person Incident Management Team that will be assigned to the Castle Fire near Milo, Oregon, on the Umpqua National Forest. The team will integrate with U.S. personnel to support command and control, planning, logistics, operations, and safety oversight. Federal fire officials expressed deep appreciation for the assistance.
The Australia and New Zealand specialists bring diverse expertise, including aviation operations, fireline leadership, prevention and mitigation strategies, and emergency communications support. Their deployment will enhance staffing depth during a period of sustained wildfire activity and will help ensure safe, effective, and well-coordinated operations. All international specialists are fully qualified based on U.S. wildland fire standards and will be fully embedded within U.S. incident command structures throughout their assignments.
Check out 2026 photos at: 2026 International Support | Flickr
2025 U.S. to Canada mobilization
In June 2025, the National Interagency Coordination Center mobilized federal firefighting personnel to support wildfire suppression efforts in Canada (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and Alberta). This cross-border support is made possible through a long-standing agreement between the United States and Canada, first established in 1982. This crucial partnership is rooted in shared landscapes, common challenges, and a mutual commitment to protecting lives, property, and natural resources.
Resources that were mobilized to Canada include airtankers, firefighting crews, complex incident management teams (CIMTs), and overhead staff.
Check out the 2025 photos at: NIFC Flickr 2025 Canada Support.
2025 Canada to U.S. mobilization
In January 2025, Canadian resources supported suppression efforts in Southern California with two airtankers from Quebec, two crews and two overhead personnel from Alberta, and one crew and one overhead personnel from British Columbia.
2024 Australia and New Zealand mobilization
A group of 71 fire management personnel from Australia and New Zealand arrived in the U.S. on August 7, 2024 to assist with management of numerous wildfires across the West. The personnel arrived at the National Interagency Fire Center.
The two contingents received a daylong orientation and situation briefing and equipment for their assignments. They assisted with various wildfires in the Pacific Northwest. The personnel are primarily fire managers that provided safety and fireline supervision consistent with U.S. wildland fire standards.
The Australian and New Zealand firefighters finished their assignments, and the final group departed for their home countries the week of September 9. We are deeply grateful for their support.
Mutual wildland fire support between the countries goes back several decades. In recent years, the U.S. sent several hundred personnel to Australia to help with a series of devastating wildfires from December of 2019 to April of 2020. In 2023, the U.S. sent 2,774 wildland firefighters to Canada during a historic fire season across multiple provinces.
Check out the 2024 photos at: NIFC Flickr 2024 Australia and New Zealand Support
2023 U.S. to Canada support
In 2023, Canada experienced an unprecedented wildfire season with 6,623 reported wildfires burning over 45 million acres—well beyond the 10-year average of 5,597 fires for 6,798,267 acres. Starting in April, the wildfire activity escalated across all provinces and territories, leading to a National Preparedness Level of PL5 on May 11, which remained until dropping to PL4 on September 8. The United States was one of 12 countries that mobilized wildland fire personnel to Canada. Through the NIFC-CIFFC Agreement the U.S. provided resource support from May through early October to Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec. These resource mobilizations included three smokejumper aircraft (with smokejumper personnel), two Type 2 rappel helicopters (with personnel), 29 engines, 77 hand crews and 25 incident management teams3. A total of 2,774 resources were mobilized to Canada.
Check out the NIFC Flickr 2023 Canadian Support album.
Background
The U.S. has maintained wildfire cooperation with Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and Portugal for decades.
Australia and New Zealand
Arrangements with Australia and New Zealand set procedures for the exchange of wildland fire management resources and establishes a framework for mutual support and cooperation.
Since 1982, the U.S. and Canada have maintained an arrangement between the National Interagency Coordination Center (NICC) in the U.S. and the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) in Canada to ensure efficient resource sharing during peak fire activity.
We have been working together since the early 1990s beginning with coordinating firefighting personnel and resources in response to fires along the U.S.-Mexico border. A new arrangement was formalized in March 2015, to expand that cooperation across both countries (not just along the immediate border), and to include joint pre-suppression and training exercises in addition to response activities.
Portugal
We have cooperated with Portugal on specific fire management initiatives for many years, and in 2023 entered into an arrangement which will primarily be used to enable joint training and research activities, working toward the ability to exchange fire suppression resources in the future.
These bilateral interagency agreements allow reciprocal support during periods of severe wildfire occurrence when resources are fully committed and nations are in need of support from other countries to safely and effectively manage wildland fire incidents. They also allow us to exchange resources for wildfire preparedness, training, research, and post-fire recovery.
