WELSHMAN ON FRONTLINE TO STOP AUSTRALIA BURNING
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WELSH firefighter has been hailed a hero while battling blazes in Australia as the country is ravaged by devastating bush fires.
Alex Newcombe, from Cardiff, has been a volunteer firefighter with the New South Wales Rural Fire Service for about 20 years.
The 49-year-old, who also works full-time as a prison officer, cut short his recovery from a kidney transplant to get back out with his volunteer team to fight the bushfires.
And he soon found himself in a situation so hair-raising that terrified colleagues were messaging their loved ones, fearing they wouldn’t make it home.
More than 10 million hectares of land has burned so far in Australia’s bushfires, larger than the area of Scotland. The fires have claimed the lives of 29 people and millions of animals.
Alex and his wife Kate, 47, have been on the frontline fighting fire near the town of Blackheath, in the Blue Mountains, where they live with their two dogs.
“That’s just what we do,” Alex said. “We just get stuck in.”
Alex was born in Cardiff and spent much of his childhood living in Barry until he moved to Australia full time in the 1980s.
At the end of September, Alex had an operation to receive a transplanted kidney donated by Kate.
Doctors advised he spend a minimum of three months recovering at home, but he went against their advice to get out and help fight the fires.
He returned to his voluntary work just a few weeks after the operation. Kate was running endurance races only five weeks after donating her kidney.
“I said to the doctors ‘I am only driving the fire trucks for them or they wouldn’t let me do it’ – but I wasn’t,” he said.
“I was on the hose, whatever I had to do.
“The Blue Mountains were on fire big time, and there is only so much s**t you can watch on TV.”
Alex and the team at the New South Wales Fire Service had a near miss while out attending an incident on December 21.
The truck they were travelling in became overrun by flames, with few opportunities for escape.
“We had a massive wall of flames, with very few places to go and not enough water,” Alex said.
“Our trucks here have tanks for protection. It’s just a sprinkler system that sprays over the wheels and the cabin.
“There’s a thermal blanket that rolls over the windows as well. But we ran out of water.
“I had to reverse the truck out, with the guy in the back giving me directions.
“He was texting his wife that he loved her. He thought it was that bad. I just thought ‘I need to get us out of here.’”
He added: “It might sound a cliché, but there is no time to panic.”
Alex managed to reverse the truck out of danger, surrounded by flames and smoke, and get his crew home safely.
The heat from the blaze was so intense it melted parts of the truck’s reflective striping and mirrors.
Alex said recent heavy rain has provided some respite for fire crews in New South Wales.
“We have had a serious amount of rain over the last 24 hours,” he said.
“Up north they got 166 millimetres, we have had about 50 here. It has taken the fires down from about 100 to about 35, so it has helped a lot.”
Alex will continue his work with the fire service over the coming months, but he now expects to be able to return to his day job as a prison officer.