Firefighter dies, fight goes on
BURRAGATE, Australia — A firefighter was killed by a falling tree while battling the Australian wildfire crisis overnight and the prime minister on Sunday said his government was adapting and building resilience to the fire danger posed by climate change.
Bill Slade — one of the few professionals among mainly volunteer brigades battling blazes across southeast Australia — died on Saturday near Omeo in eastern Victoria state, Forest Fire Management Victoria Executive Director Chris Hardman said.
The 60-year-old married father of two was in November commended for 40 years service with the forestry agency.
“Although we do have enormous experience in identifying hazardous trees, sometimes these tree failures can’t be predicted,” Mr Hardman said.
“Working on the fire ground in a forest environment is a dynamic, high-risk environment and it carries with it significant risk.”
The tragedy brings the death toll to at least 27 people in a crisis that has destroyed more than 2000 homes and scorched an area larger than the US state of Indiana since September. Four of the casualties were firefighters.
Authorities are using relatively benign conditions forecast in southeast Australia for a week or more to consolidate containment lines around scores of fires that are likely to burn for weeks without heavy rainfall. The reprieve from severe fire conditions promises to be the longest of the current fire season.
The crisis has brought accusations that Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s conservative government needs to take more action to counter climate change, which experts say has worsened the blazes.