South African firefighters thrill locals with beautiful song as they arrive to tackle Canadian wildfires

People at Edmonton Airport were given an unexpected surprise by 281 South African firefighters who’d just arrived after being invited to Canada to help tackle the country’s wildfires.

The firefighters broke into a traditional soldier’s song in the arrivals hall after undertaking the whopping 16,000km journey to the city from Johannesburg on Sunday morning.

The group are in the country to help the fight against wildfires that have engulfed the province of Alberta as part of a program run by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre - which several other countries sign up to.