News and opinion about wildland fire
Martin Greenwood sent us information about a short documentary he has released about a group of firefighters responding to a firestorm at the small town of Nerriga, New South Wales Australia December 21, 2019. It uses a great deal of excellent video footage shot by the firefighters and cameras on the engines, as well as interviews with the personnel who were there.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Prescribed Fire3 Comments on All-female hazard reduction burn in Australia 
In July, 2019 an all-female group of firefighters in New South Wales, Australia conducted a hazard reduction burn in Scheyville National Park.
We are a little late to the party, but here is an excerpt from a news release by the NSW Rural Fire Service at the time:
A hazard reduction burn in Scheyville National Park today is business as usual for NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) firefighting staff. However, there is cause for celebration as the operation marks the first hazard reduction burn with an all-female crew.
NPWS acting Executive Director of Park Operations, Naomi Stephens congratulated NPWS for providing equal employment opportunities and a supportive working environment for women.
“Working for the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service offers a vast range of opportunities for those looking for unique employment,” said Ms Stephens.
“Firefighting is just one of the many vital services provided by NPWS to protect local communities and wildlife.
“It is fantastic to see women thriving in a male-dominated field.
“While today may be the first time an all-female crew is running a hazard reduction burn, increasingly women have been playing a vital role in day to day NPWS firefighting.”
“Having an all-female managed burn highlights the growing number of women at NPWS taking on roles in the firefighting field.
“Although we have women in just about every different role when it comes to firefighting, we’ve never conducted an all-female burn before. It’s one thing to say that women are every bit as capable as men, but actions speak louder than words, so we decided to prove it. And it’s fantastic that women from the RFS and Fire and Rescue NSW are joining us on the burn today.
“Twenty percent of NPWS firefighters are female and women make up 23% of incident management specialists, which is significantly above the average in the fire and emergency sector.
Located at their new Training Academy in Dubbo
This article first appeared on Fire Aviation.
In 2019 our Australian friends in the New South Wales Rural Fire Service built a Training Academy in Dubbo for improving the skills of fire personnel when responding to emergencies across the state. They soon will be adding an Aviation Centre of Excellence which will have four flight simulators.
One of those simulators is being used now in the Academy, and is based on a helicopter cockpit for trainees wearing virtual reality helmets. The immediate plans are for air attack supervisor roles and later for other airborne positions.
The system will be for maintaining currency, and to give trainees new to aerial firefighting the chance to find out if the role is for them.
The simulator was delivered in December and the staff has been building training scenarios, with some based on actual fire situations.
Located at the Dubbo City Regional Airport, the Academy includes classroom and practical training with a large auditorium, lecture theater, indoor and outdoor training areas, gym, and catering services with a commercial kitchen. The academy will ultimately have 97 bedroom accommodations for trainees.
“I think it’s really important that apart from the fact that we are launching the simulator here, it becomes another building to support our academy,” said Commissioner of the NSW RFS Rob Rogers. “This is the first of four simulators that we will have in that building. Having the ability to train our own people and use simulator systems like this to be able to upskill people in a non-hazardous environment and obviously then complement that with actual flying will help our people become better trained and have access to better technology.”
The video below is an introduction to the flight simulator.
The next video is about the Training Academy.
A number of locations have received 100 mm (almost four inches) of precipitation
Many areas in New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland have received multiple inches of rain over the last seven days with a number of locations recording about 100 mm (almost four inches).
A heavy rain could come close to putting out some fires but a light rain, depending on the fuel (vegetation), might just pause the spread for a while. And some regions have received little or no rain.
NSW Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons says the rain is “breaking the back” of the bushfire season. “The rain is good for business and farms as well as being really good for quenching some of these fires we’ve been dealing with for many, many months,” the commissioner told ABC TV on Friday.
The forecast for Sydney, on the NSW coast, calls for nearly 100 percent chance of precipitation every day over the next eight days.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Wildfire5 Comments on Video of the last drop of Air Tanker 134 in Australia The EC-130Q crashed in New South Wales January 23, 2020
A video has emerged of the final retardant drop of Air Tanker 134, the Coulson Aviation EC-130Q that crashed just after the drop January 23, 2020.
It appears from the video that as the drop was made the wind was approximately from the 5 o’clock position of the aircraft. Judging from wind noise on the cell phone’s microphone, dust blowing on the road, and the movement of the smoke, the wind speed was pretty significant.
The video contains a brief view of fire near the end, which may be sensitive to some people.
After making the drop, the aircraft began a left turn and climbed slightly before disappearing in the smoke, reappearing for a second, and soon after that crashed.
All members of the three-person crew died in the crash. Captain Ian H. McBeth lived in Great Falls, Montana and served with the Wyoming Air National Guard and was still a member of the Montana Air National Guard. He spent his entire career flying C-130’s and was a qualified Instructor and Evaluator pilot. Ian earned his Initial Attack qualification for Coulson in 2018.
First Officer Paul Clyde Hudson of Buckeye, Arizona graduated from the Naval Academy in 1999 and spent the next twenty years serving in the United States Marine Corp in a number of positions including C-130 pilot. He retired as a Lt. Colonel.
Flight Engineer Rick A. DeMorgan Jr. lived in Navarre, Florida. He served in the United States Air Force for eighteen years as a Flight Engineer on the C-130. Rick had over 4,000 hours as a Flight Engineer with nearly 2,000 hours in a combat environment.
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Jay. Typos or errors, report them HERE.
Tim Salway’s father, Robert, and brother, Patrick, died trying to defend their properties in a New South Wales bushfire, but Tim’s daily chores at the dairy farm could not be ignored.
The article below was written by Sergeant Max Bree of the Australian Army, January 20, 2020.
A raging inferno killed Tim Salway’s brother and father when bushfires tore through the family dairy farm near Cobargo, NSW, on New Year’s Eve.
As Mr Salway returned to their ravaged 600-acre property, milking came first.
“I knew my old man and brother were lying there just over the hill, but we had to get the cows in,” Mr Salway said.
“You can’t afford to miss because they start getting udder issues.
“That was the hardest milking I’ve ever had to do, but you couldn’t just stop and say ‘that was a bad fire’.”
About 170 of the Salways’ 350 cows were lost in the blaze.
Help arrived in the fires’ wake, including an Army strike team to clear and pile up fallen trees from the paddocks, saving the family an estimated month’s work.
“They ripped in with chainsaws, they smashed through, their bosses kept asking me ‘what next?’,” Mr Salway said.
“We’re able to get back in these paddocks, we’re able to work the land again. In time we’ll be able to burn these heaps [of wood].
“They cleared our driveway and just driving in makes you feel better. Things like this keep you going, as tough as it is for our family.”
Lieutenant Aiden Frost, of the 2nd/17th Battalion, Royal New South Wales Regiment, commanded the strike team that arrived for two days of work on January 14.
They also brought water and an Army chaplain to counsel the Salways.
“The intensity of the fire basically ripped all of the trees out of the ground and created huge amounts of debris which rendered the paddocks sort of unusable,” Lieutenant Frost said.
“The farmers have been overwhelmed. We can’t solve the whole problem, but in a couple of days our guys have been able to clear significant amounts of the property, which will eventually allow their cattle numbers to recover.”
Strike teams, such as those commanded by Lieutenant Frost, are working to assist communities in south-east NSW in the wake of the bushfires.
His team has 26 soldiers from Army’s 5th Brigade, mostly infantrymen and combat engineers supported by a medic and signaller.
Four of the infantrymen completed an Army chainsaw course while the team was staging at Holsworthy.
“One minute we’re helping fix fences to stop cattle getting on the road and the next minute we’re out doing engineer tasks like inspecting culverts and bridges, or felling and cutting up trees” Lieutenant Frost said.
“Even if it is just basic, manual labour, the team is really glad to be able to help.”
The Salways’ farm provides milk to Bega Cheese, the same company that makes canned cheese for Australian Army ration packs.
The company couldn’t process the Salways’ milk for 10 days after the fires, meaning it had to be dumped, but Bega Cheese still paid for it. The company also provided the family with generators, to keep things running until power was restored.
“We take for granted where everything comes from,” Lieutenant Frost said.
“Guys like these farmers provide milk to make cheese for ration packs or the supermarket; everyone knows the struggles they’ve had.
“Then to have a fire devastate your farm and lose family members is the last thing any of these people needed. At least we can show that the people of Australia and the Army cares about them.”
When the team finished at the Salways’ property, Tim’s family had worked for 15 days straight to recover, with no end in sight.
“It wasn’t a fire, it was a monster, like a tornado; it’s something I don’t want to see again,” he said.
“The family down the road lost five houses. Up the road, out of about seven houses, there’s only one left.
“I’ve been trying to say it’s not that bad, but when the Army turns up to help you it must be pretty bad.”
