Kiwi firefighter back from Aussie disaster

A Kiwi firefighter just back from fighting the raging wildfires in New South Wales says he has never seen anything like it.

Aucklander Scott Marchant had been sent to tackle bushfires in Canada and the United States before but the deputy principal rural fire officer said the sheer size of the Australian fires and the devastation they had caused was on a different scale.

Twenty-six Kiwi firefighters flew to Australia on Sunday night to join the fight against the fires that have claimed four lives and destroyed hundreds of homes.

What faced them was ‘‘unbelievable’’, Marchant said. ‘‘Fire as far as you can see, everywhere you look.’’

He said that for the two weeks he was there, he did not see an inch of blue sky: ‘‘It was just smoke’’. The days were long, up to 14 hours. The hours were not always enough to beat the fire, though. ‘‘It is really hard to go back the next day and see the house you were looking after burnt and gone,’’ he said. ‘‘That is really devastating.’’ Seeing what the fire had ripped from people was one of the toughest things, he said. A lot of people lost everything: their livelihoods, their houses, even family members.

It was hard to comprehend the scale of the fires, he said. There was nothing in New Zealand that compared. In his second week, he was looking after five of the 60 fires that were burning. Those five fires were the same size as

Deputy principal rural fire officer Scott Marchant was fighting the wildfires from the air.

Scott Marchant

the whole Auckland region, he said. ‘‘Just massive.’’

Marchant arrived home on Friday. Leaving was emotional, he said.

‘‘I know everyone is tired over there. The firefighters over there are tired, the pilots are tired, the

people are tired, the community is tired.’’

Michael Ihaka from Whanga¯ rei was one of those heading over on Sunday to pick up some of the load.

The crew leader said the fires’ heat and volatility were the first things on his mind.

He was deployed to Victoria earlier this year but said this deployment would be a ‘‘whole new ball game’’.

High winds, low humidity and dry fuel meant the fires were highly unpredictable.

There was a huge sense of responsibility, he said, but at the end of the day they were there to do a job.

‘‘We are here to brothers and sisters

‘‘It is really hard to go back the next day and see the house you were looking after burnt and gone.’’

help our in Australia.’’