The fire-fighters who downed hoses in a pay dispute had attended a boot camp in Gauteng to prepare for the trip to Canada‚ learning technical and social skills — including how to handle money.

Two weeks ago‚ the team of 301 departed South Africa amongst great excitement and massive public support to help Canada keep a large wildfire under control.

While the worst of the damage was over before the SA team was called up‚ Canada and SA’s Working on Fire planned to deploy the team to help with fire suppression efforts.

Also read: SA sends team to extinguish fire fighter dispute in Canada

In preparation‚ Working on Fire held a National Deployment Bootcamp in Gauteng in April where 400 firefighters received training to ensure that they were physically fit and ready for deployment.

“We also wanted to elevate the level of training to meet international standards‚ and in so doing‚ to raise the level of service they offer during deployments‚” Working of Fire said in a statement at the end of May.

“During this boot camp‚ topics such as managing finances‚ intercultural relationships‚ Incident Command‚ resilience as well as social skills were addressed.”

In addition‚ instructors from the Working on Fire Training Academy conducted fitness drills while representatives from Canada demonstrated how Canadian water handling equipment works.

Now‚ the 301 fire-fighters are back in Gauteng after their deployment was cut short. The Working with Fire team will be holding a meeting with the Department of Environment Affairs on Tuesday for a debriefing on what transpired in Canada.