One foot in black, ranger back home
The scale of bushfires in parts of Australia were so enormous they would generate their own weather systems, creating lightning storms and starting new fires, a Kiwi ranger said.
Karen Ismay described the scenes witnessed in New South Wales, where she and a New Zealand crew of 20 focused on the Charleys Forest fire, east of Canberra.
With brown rain and hail, fire storms and dust storms, Ismay said the effect on towns ‘‘absolutely devastated’’ by fire was huge.
‘‘It does lend itself well to some kind of photogenic apocalyptic movie scene,’’ she said.
Ismay returned to Auckland from Sydney on Monday, January 20 after a two-week stint fighting fires close to the country’s capital.
As a Department of Conservation ranger for 14 years, she ‘‘made it very clear’’ that she wanted to be deployed and help where she could in Australia.
‘‘It’s very easy to be motivated because somebody’s house might depend on the quality of our work,’’ she said.
While in Charleys Forest, there were days when the crew were fronting up against large flames, working in conjunction with a bulldozer that would create a firebreak.
The team would let the fires burn to the bulldozer line, and they’d patrol the perimeter and put out any spot fires or embers that would cross it.
‘‘We were certainly working on very steep ground, and it was pretty tough when it was 39 degrees with very low humidity and a breeze,’’ Ismay said.
‘‘Towards the end, we had a little bit of drizzle so everything quietened down, and on those cooler days, when the fire behaviour wasn’t so volatile, that’s when we could go in and do some really good preparation work before the next flareup.’’
The Kiwi crew was staying in a nearby town called Queanbeyan, and Ismay said they were ‘‘hosted like royalty’’.
‘‘They were really happy to have us there and were really welcoming.
‘‘We had one day off as a rest day in the middle and we went out for lunch, and there were people who wanted to buy us drinks. If people found out where we were staying, they’d show up at the motel and hand out 21 presents. They really appreciated it,’’ she said.
‘‘Disasters tend to bring out the best in communities. People really want to help, and if they’re not firefighters, they’ll find other ways.’’
Ismay, from Thames, is a DOC ranger whose had experience fighting fires throughout New Zealand and Canada.
In Australia, the landscape differed from that in New Zealand, as the team battled blazes within mostly eucalypt forest and could cover a lot of ground.
‘‘Every summer I’m concerned when I see there’s a drought or the fire risk goes up, but I think one of the key differences here is we’ve got access to a lot more water naturally,’’ she said.
‘‘In New South Wales, they are predominantly fighting fire with bulldozer lines and fire breaks and prescribed burnings, whereas in New Zealand, you don’t have to go far to find a source of water to fight with, so we’ve got that as an advantage.’’
But fighting fires anywhere in the world was always challenging, but the crews sent to battle them were the best people for the job, she said.
‘‘We always talk about keeping one foot in the black – the black being the burnt bits – because if it’s burnt already, it’s probably not going to burn again.
‘‘And we’re very good at predicting the fire volatility and we always plan well; we’ve got escape routes organised and we know if the fire starts getting more volatile, we’ve already planned out where we’ll go and how we will escape.’’
Ismay said another group of Kiwis have been deployed to a similar location in Australia and are picking up where her crew left off.
But she expects there will be work for her yet.
‘‘There’s a lot of summer left and I expect at some point whether it’s in Australia or New Zealand, we’ll be firefighting again. I’m sure it’s not over.’’