Humbling support for Kiwis fighting Oz fires
Helping tackle rampant Australian bushfires initially felt like just another day on the job for four Southland firefighters.
Ken Keenan, Nigel Milne, Brodie Butcher, and Graeme Appleby returned to Southland on Monday night following a two-week stint in Australia
The quartet joined other New Zealand firefighters who were deployed in New South Wales to work on the Charleys Forest fires, about 90 minutes east of Canberra.
They had put their name forward to help and on January 7 got a phone call to say they were needed on a flight to Australia the next day.
It was their second stint after also helping in Australia in November.
Butcher was straight to the point when asked what it was like being part of trying to contain the bushfires which had been so destructive in Australia.
‘‘Just another day at work,’’ Butcher initially said, in regard to their duties.
However, as the conversation progressed the four acknowledged it was hard not to gather an appreciation of the importance of their work, given the support they had received from the locals.
After all, at times they found themselves protecting homes.
‘‘We would gather before we would go into the bush and people would arrive and they would have food and donations . . . it’s quite moving how the members of the community would look after [the firefighters],’’ Keenan, the crew leader, said.
Appleby echoed those thoughts.
‘‘I think I can speak for all of us that it’s just a job we go and do, we are trained to do it. But there is a lot of appreciation from the locals over there that you are doing it,’’ he said.
‘‘There was a little town where all the fire trucks go through, there was a couple on the side of the road with a fridge with a sign up saying, ‘free drinks for any [firefighters]’. It’s those wee things.’’
Before they departed Australia the region’s mayor put on a dinner for the New Zealand firefighters and also awarded them a mayoral honour.
During their trip to Australia last year the Southlanders were on the trucks with a fire hose in hand dousing the flames.
The latest trip, however, involved the Southlanders clearing land between where the fire was burning and where it had not reached in attempts to contain it.
It meant for some tough work and, at times, deflating situations when they cleared an area only for an ember to blow over it and a fire to start elsewhere.
‘‘It’s amazing how quickly it can change when you sit down to have a drink. You’ll have a fire break there and think you’ve got it sorted but by the time you’ve had your drink and look back up, you might be back having to make that fire break stronger,’’ Butcher said.
Keenan acknowledged the hard work of his team.
‘‘I’m as proud as hell of the boys, they always pull their weight. We’ve got a great team.’’
‘‘I’m as proud as hell of the boys, they always pull their weight.’’ Ken Keenan