Tauranga park ranger Jarron McInnes sure knows how to pick a change in climate, and he'll find himself in extreme conditions when he joins a Kiwi brigade of rural firefighters tasked with helping tackle hundreds of uncontrolled wildfires tearing across Canada.

Tomorrow, the Pumicelands Rural Fire Authority deputy principal fire officer boards a plane bound for Vancouver, where more than 16,000sq km have already burned in the country.

Deputy principal rural fire officer Jarron McInnes says fighting fires in Canada is a 'once in a lifetime opportunity”. Photo: Tracy Hardy.

Though less than a week ago, he was sitting at the TECT All Terrain Park in somewhat cooler conditions.

'It was quite surreal because I was putting the application together up at the office and it was snowing,” says Jarron.

'So I was sitting there filling out an application to fight forest fires and it was snowing outside. It was quite ironic.”

Once in Vancouver, the team of 16 Kiwis – from rural fire services, the Department of Conservation, councils, forestry companies and private contractors – head to Edmonton, Alberta where they will be based for 35 days.

The group will be working 14 days straight as soon as they arrive, with two days' break before a further 14 intensive days in some remote areas including Saskatchewan - deemed one of the hot spots where the fires are most threatening.

Each of the Kiwi members offer different skills and the team will work in an incident management capacity, as opposed to on-the-ground firefighting. Jarron will be a team leader, co-ordinating resource supply to the teams on the ground.

Yet it will still be an eye opener for all involved, says the man who has been involved in the rural fire authority since 1985. He says about 400 wildfires are burning, with another 20 to 30 starting up every day from lightning strikes.

'I will be seeing some fire behaviour that we don't ever see in New Zealand,” he explains.

'A wild fire here might consist of 200 hectares, but when you talk about 46-to-50,000 hectares for one fire, that's going to be a real big eye opener.”

In Canada, thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes because of air quality and actual flames, as the country deals with an unusually devastating start to its fire season.

According to National Public Radio, the fires in Saskatchewan are growing into each other and combining as fire crews and aircraft work through the thick clouds of smoke that have forced more than 10,000 people to leave their homes.

The international call comes after Canada exhausted its own rural fire resources, with North America and Alaska not releasing any further resources.

'It's a once in a lifetime opportunity,” says Jarron.

If the fires continued, another New Zealand deployment may be sent over after their month.

TECT All Terrain Park operations manager Bill Wheeler said the park was lucky the local community would rally round to help during Jarron's absence, with assistant ranger Tom Mayne taking up residence to ensure there would be no interruption to the day-to-day running of the park.