Fighting fires during Australia's Black Summer | Big Weather
7.7 هزار بار بازدید -
4 سال پیش
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Craig Reucassel joins volunteer firefighters
Craig Reucassel joins volunteer firefighters from RFS Taralga, NSW on the front line as they try to manage spot fires from getting out of control during Australia's Black Summer.
But after fighting fires for months, the exhausted crew have their work cut out for them with worsening wind conditions and a fire that's spreading fast. #BigWeather #YourPlanetAU
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From the front lines of Australia’s Black Summer of 2019 - 2020, the three-part series, Big Weather (and how to survive it) delivers an urgent and entertaining message of how our weather is changing and what we can do to survive it.
Stream now on iview: http://ab.co/BigWeather
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With reports of spot fires in nearby bushland, I'm heading out with RFS captain John Sullivan.
Charlie Seven Bravo...
Who, like many other volunteers, has been working around the clock for months. How do you just...? How do you put yourself out there in harm's way constantly?
I guess, I mean personally, I don't think of it that way. I think of it just as doing what I can to protect our community and to stop the fire from getting to their homes.
Yeah.
Volunteer firies are normally rostered on for 12-hour shifts, but this season, it's rare to work less than 14. Many also struggle to hold down fulltime jobs, some volunteering until 2:00 in the morning and back at work at 6:00am. How are you feeling? Are you exhausted? Like...
Yeah. Really tired. You get to a point where you start thinking you're just running on adrenaline, you know? And with these winds, we just can't keep up with it. We can get spotting up to probably 20 kilometres in advance of the fire.
20 kilometres? So, it spots that far ahead.
Yeah.
(MAN ON RADIO) Go ahead.
Fire Control One Alpha. We've got a fire sighting approximately two kilometres to the west of the grid reference, which I'll give you if you're ready to copy over.
Sure enough, it's not long before we spot the first sign of trouble in a patch of bush that was ablaze a week ago.
I'll re-circle once I'm on site.
It's roaring. So you're trying to stop this from... You don't want this getting into the treetops.
Well, we may not be able to stop it from doing that, but if we can just stop it from getting down into this unburnt country, we might have a chance of sort of holding it.
So, it's going both ways.
Yeah.
It's going up there and up here, so...
Oh, actually it's getting a bit, a bit worse now. We'll just work our way up the hill.
Up the hill?
So there won't be fire behind us.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Where do you want to go? Jesus. You can feel the heat off it. Can you get it? Do you need more, John?
A little bit if you've got anymore.
Can we go forward at all? Here you go. There's a bit more, John. This is not even a huge fire and you can just feel the heat here already. I can't imagine what it's like in front of these massive fires that we've been seeing all season. The firies in this area have been on the fire front for nearly two months. And before that, they were in the north of the state fighting fires that started early up there. I just cannot comprehend how these people have managed to keep this up for such a long period under such a high-stress situation. It's quite amazing.
But after fighting fires for months, the exhausted crew have their work cut out for them with worsening wind conditions and a fire that's spreading fast. #BigWeather #YourPlanetAU
Subscribe now: http://ab.co/subscribe
___________________________________________
From the front lines of Australia’s Black Summer of 2019 - 2020, the three-part series, Big Weather (and how to survive it) delivers an urgent and entertaining message of how our weather is changing and what we can do to survive it.
Stream now on iview: http://ab.co/BigWeather
___________________________________________
With reports of spot fires in nearby bushland, I'm heading out with RFS captain John Sullivan.
Charlie Seven Bravo...
Who, like many other volunteers, has been working around the clock for months. How do you just...? How do you put yourself out there in harm's way constantly?
I guess, I mean personally, I don't think of it that way. I think of it just as doing what I can to protect our community and to stop the fire from getting to their homes.
Yeah.
Volunteer firies are normally rostered on for 12-hour shifts, but this season, it's rare to work less than 14. Many also struggle to hold down fulltime jobs, some volunteering until 2:00 in the morning and back at work at 6:00am. How are you feeling? Are you exhausted? Like...
Yeah. Really tired. You get to a point where you start thinking you're just running on adrenaline, you know? And with these winds, we just can't keep up with it. We can get spotting up to probably 20 kilometres in advance of the fire.
20 kilometres? So, it spots that far ahead.
Yeah.
(MAN ON RADIO) Go ahead.
Fire Control One Alpha. We've got a fire sighting approximately two kilometres to the west of the grid reference, which I'll give you if you're ready to copy over.
Sure enough, it's not long before we spot the first sign of trouble in a patch of bush that was ablaze a week ago.
I'll re-circle once I'm on site.
It's roaring. So you're trying to stop this from... You don't want this getting into the treetops.
Well, we may not be able to stop it from doing that, but if we can just stop it from getting down into this unburnt country, we might have a chance of sort of holding it.
So, it's going both ways.
Yeah.
It's going up there and up here, so...
Oh, actually it's getting a bit, a bit worse now. We'll just work our way up the hill.
Up the hill?
So there won't be fire behind us.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Where do you want to go? Jesus. You can feel the heat off it. Can you get it? Do you need more, John?
A little bit if you've got anymore.
Can we go forward at all? Here you go. There's a bit more, John. This is not even a huge fire and you can just feel the heat here already. I can't imagine what it's like in front of these massive fires that we've been seeing all season. The firies in this area have been on the fire front for nearly two months. And before that, they were in the north of the state fighting fires that started early up there. I just cannot comprehend how these people have managed to keep this up for such a long period under such a high-stress situation. It's quite amazing.
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