Your team is
given some 1600-litre plastic containers, some drums of fire-retardant, water
and an assortment of pumps and hoses. Your mission: work out how to mix up
masses of fire retardant in time to supply the base’s fire-fighting aircraft.
There’s no instruction manual.
Collar tanks with 1600 litres of retardant
That was one of
the problems that Digger helped solve during his fire duty in December. The
‘collar tanks’ were duly filled and their retardant pumped up by helicopters
and fixed-wing aircraft fighting the northeast bushfires. The only mishap
occurred when a pipe burst, spraying out a red fan of retardant. Some of the
crew’s coveralls were so coated they were stiff enough to stand empty.
When asked, ‘What
was the worst thing that happened during your fire duty?’ Digger’s immediate
reply was ‘Boredom!’ It was just like being at war, which has been described as
‘90% boredom and 10% sheer terror’. The main occupation is to wait, wait, wait,
for the call to come; but everything must be ready for instant deployment.
A massive
logistical exercise, fire fighting. The Department of Sustainability and
Environment’s Fireweb website reveals mind-boggling details behind the
campaign. Each fire is divided into sectors, based on geographical borders such
as ridges or watercourses. Frequent reports are filed day and night for each
sector, with actions performed, e.g. back-burning, rehabilitation work, etc. A
summary in the website shows total fires area, the number and type of equipment
employed, number and type of people involved, whether the fires are ‘going’,
‘contained’, or ‘controlled’ and so on. But each fire is often chaotic,
changing from ‘going’ to ‘controlled’ then back again.
The website also
features some hair-raising photographs of back-burning and a photo of two
helicopters that look too close for comfort (an optical illusion). People and
equipment from all over Australia and from overseas countries are involved.
Even the communications centres are portable.
Digger was sent to
Sale and Traralgon in December; Rangers Des and Alison have been on fire duty,
and former Park Ranger Iris was flown from Hattah to Lakes Entrance for fire
duty as well. Digger was luckily home for Christmas, but this week has been on
call at Lysterfield to guard against fire.
Digger on left, with fire-duty mates, Peter Rennick and Brian Goodman
Digger summed up
the fire situation: ‘It’s like going to war, but instead of fighting an
intelligent foe, a person, you’re fighting fire. But fire is unpredictable and
you’ve got no control over it all, no matter what you do.’
‘I stand alone’