Some three dozen South African firefighters, clad in their bright yellow jackets and dark blue pants, danced, sang and cheered in a sprawling parking lot close by the majestic woods of central Alberta. The mood was light as the men and women smiled and clapped, some taking out smartphones to record video of their dancing colleagues before heading off to another day battling the fires raging through Canada.
The group gathered on an early July day in the small town of Fox Creek had traveled nearly 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) to help fight the hundreds of devastating wildfires that have burned homes and wild lands in the region, destroying an area about the size of the U.S. state of Virginia. They chanted and worked through drills before signing a Canadian flag presented to them as a token of thanks.
