Firefighters heading back to Australia
Two Taranaki firefighters who only recently returned from battling the Australian bush fires are heading back for a second stint.
Marcus Leggett and Charlotte McGoldrick, of New Plymouth’s Ngamotu Volunteer Rural Fire Force, only arrived back in New Zealand from a 13-day deployment on February 2 but will be heading back again on Monday.
They will be among another contingent of New Zealand firefighters heading to New South Wales, where fires have been burning since November.
It will be Leggett’s sixth overseas deployment. He said he was only too happy to help out those in need, especially the Australian firefighters who were doing it tough.
‘‘They are all volunteers and they have been fighting the fires flat out since November.
‘‘They haven’t been to work. I think one of them even lost his house a couple of weeks before we were there and he was still out there doing it. They just have to.’’
Leggett, an arborist for Asplundh, said he had been asked while in Australia if he would return and lead another team but he needed to check with his bosses first.
‘‘Work have been really good and understanding and have allowed me to have more time off.’’
The generosity shown by the Australian public was overwhelming, he said.
‘‘People would stop you in the street and say thanks, they would buy you drinks and want to buy you food and everything.
‘‘It’s very humbling.’’ Despite the dangers involved, McGoldrick also had no problem volunteering for another stint – her third overseas deployment.
‘‘It’s just a great way to help out the community really. You do a lot of training so you have just got to rely on that.
‘‘They are a hard case bunch, they’re still very happy but tired. They have been doing it for months now.’’
The 26-year-old chef also felt humbled and blown away by the welcoming nature of the locals.
‘‘Wow, you couldn’t go out to dinner or go out anywhere really without someone saying ‘oh my God, thank you so much’.’’
One woman even put a fridge out on the roadside with every possible kind of drink possible in it for firefighters, she said.
Nigel Dravitzki, a New Zealand liaison and Taranaki/Ruapehu/ Whanganui principal rural fire officer, will also fly out with Monday’s deployment.
Dravitzki said, as yesterday, the fires had been burning for 155 days and there was still no end in sight.
‘‘I think that they are making better headway now.
‘‘However, with the fire and the landscape so big there is still a lot of work to do.’’
Since November at least 33 people have been killed – including four firefighters – and more than 11 million hectares (110,000 sq km or 27.2 million acres) of bush, forest and parks across Australia has burned.
About 1167 firefighters from Australia, New Zealand and North America are currently working to control and extinguish the blazes.
Meanwhile Base Power, an all-inone energy system developed by Powerco, will be providing about $1.3 million worth of powerful energy storage units, back-up generators and solar panels to areas of New South Wales most affected by the devastating fires.
Business manager Jayson Vinsen hoped the equipment could in a ‘‘small way’’ help get the communities back on their feet.