Off to fight fires - will be away for remainder of week

[Champion of the Force]

Just letting you all know that I've been called up to join the other 15,000 or so firefighters battling fires around Sydney. I don't expect to back until late Sunday (Australian time).

Keep things in order while I'm gone. :)

[Jedi Master Carr]

You can count on me and Jedieb to keep things in order.

[Jedieb]

I just read about those fires on Compuserve. The thought crossed my mind that some of the Aussies here might be affected. I'm sorry to see that thought was so accurate. Fight the good fight and be careful Davwj.

May The Force Be With You.

[Marcus Telcontar]

David,

If you want to, there's a place for you or anyone else, to get some rest between fires here. my mobile number is 042-722-8889. Give me a call if you can please anyway just to let me know your okay.

I can tell you, Sydney isnt a fun place right now. There are some huge fires burning for the last week and there's no relief in sight. I'm not close to any right now, but one of the big ones is at Kurrajong heights, about 15 km from me. I think my Dad is close to the really big one, which has burnt out 300,000 hectares and destroyed a few homes.

And just when we thought it was over, it's gotten fearfully hot and the wind changed! More fires are breaking out as I type. Sydneysiders dont know where the next fire is coming from, cause it's arsonist's starting them.

There's a lot of people who need prayer tonight and for the rest of this week.

[Hart]

Good luck Dave. See you when you get back.

[BUFFJEDI]

you be careful!!!GOD's speed.

[darth_mcbain]

Be careful man - hope you and the others can turn it around and get those fires out...

[Mu Satach]

Am praying for yousa & crew & peeps in Aussieland. I saw footage of some of the fires down there... scary. :(

[Champion of the Force]

I'm back people. :)

Sorry i didn't ring you DT - I had already logged of by the time you posted your message and this is the first time I've been back on since then. Needless to say I'm fine with the exception of a bit of sunburn. :)

It got off to a bit of a disorganised start. The previous crew had been to Pickton (sp?) and we were supposed to go to Braidwood in response to the fires there. So we got to Goulburn where we were supposed to meet the previous crew to get the trucks - and waited for 6 1/2 hours :x. Thankfully we were at the McDonald's carpark (McDonald's is giving all firefighters free meals, so we naturally pigged out whenever we could).

In the end, after 3 false starts (FireCom kept changing the location we had to go to) we ended up on our way to Nowra in response to the fires there. We stayed at the Albatross Naval Base which was an excellent place - the navy is on Christmas holidays or out to sea so the place was virtually deserted and left us all the facilities there to use. Unfortunately due to the working hours we had we weren't able to make use of them.

Pretty much our days lasted from 5am in the morning to 10pm at night. Our actual firefighting time lasts approx. 12 hours (usually 8am to 8pm) and the rest is getting organised, having showers, eating, getting transported etc. Of course it wasn't all fun and games - the dreaded 'hurry up and wait' syndrome was in full force. Pretty much this means that we get sent off to some location to monitor a fire or help out with something, then sit on our behinds for a couple of hours (it takes forever to get the ok to do things like a simple backburn - I suppose considering the magnitude of the event it can't be helped). It really annoyed a lot of firefighters (the Falls Creek captain bitched about it live on the radio for the entire sector to hear and then went home) but that comes with the job.

We didn't meet any major fires - pretty much all the ones we did do were ones we did ourselves for backburning. Some of the local 'greenies' were a bit annoyed at us "ruining all the lovel bush for no good reason" but many of the local residents were actually happy we did clear out a lot of the bush areas in and around the townships - its almost a jungle there.

Speaking of the residents, it would appear that it is during a crisi that brings out the best in people. Every day people were giving us stuff as we passed in the truck. Drinks, food, cough lollies, slabs of beer (no kidding! - pity we can't drink it on duty). The most memorable event was when the local ice cream man came along and gave us all free ice creams - EVERYONE dropped what they were doing (monitoring a backburn) and raced down to have some. It was a funny sight seeing 30-40 people in orange overalls with white helmets licking ice cream on the side of the road next to a burning blaze. :) And of course McDonalds gave free meals and Coles Myer sent up 20 zillion tonnes worth of drinks - all free of charge. People also had signs out in front of their homes saying things like 'Thankyou for your help" and "God bless the volunteers" (my favourite one - "Thankyou for saving my Nanny's house").

Anyways, all crews are only allowed a maximum of 3 days on the field, plus 1 day to get there and another to get back. I finally got home at 1am this morning (Monday) after 7 hours on the road getting home (with the obligatory stop at McDonalds :)). we would have been home sooner if it hadn't been for another fire which burnt out a pacddock full of woodchips (read: big trouble) that we had to respond to.

Ok, I've typed enough. Thankyou all for your support given here. It was quite and interesting experience and I will mopre than likely do it again and again over the coming years if the need arises. :)

[Marcus Telcontar]

Stuff the greenies - it's their stupidity at times that makes the problem one hell of a lot worse. You can only clear the fuel load with backburning.

Good to hear your back and in one piece. It's been a fairly appaling couple of weeks for fires in Sydney and surrounds. Much thanks for your effort too.

BTYW - did you see Elvis?

[Champion of the Force]

BTYW - did you see Elvis?
Nope - we were too far south to see Elvis. There were an awful lot of helicopters flying around though - police, navy and of course the water-carrying types.

As I mentioned above it was a virtual jungle in some places and the choppers were the only way to get at the fire. We would have to go in afterward with rake-hoes and snuff out any remaining flames (we did that a bit yesterday) since the hoses couldn't reach.

[Jedieb]

You've done a man's job! We're all proud of you.
MTFBWY
:clap

[darth_mcbain]

Glad you're back and safe. I second EB's applause for a job well done... :clap :clap :clap