Typical environments in which the Forests NSW firefighters found themselves duringtheir US stay. Photo by Dean Kearney and Duncan Watt

It was a typical winter day in New South Wales when the call came fortwo Forests NSW firefighters to join an Australian contingency in the USA.

Their task was to fight raging forest fires that had begun through aseries of lightning storms across California in the heat of the northernhemisphere summer.

Within 48 hours, Duncan Watt from Tumut and Dean Kearney from CoffsHarbour found themselves in Boise, Idaho, for two days of induction at theNational Interagency Fire Centre, before being posted to fill supervisory roleson wild fires in northern California.

The two foresters found themselves in charge of divisions with more than100 firefighters under their command, conducting backburn operations to containwildfires in the mountainous terrain of Northern Califoirnia’s SiskiyouWilderness.

The tactics used to contain the fires were familiar to the Australians,but the fire crews were completely different to those used back at home.

Due to the steep topography and remoteness of the area in which thefires were burning much of the work was done by 20-person hand crews.

These crews were driven to the fire in buses and would work all day onfoot using tools such as chainsaws, pulaskis and rake-hoes to constructcontainment lines by hand.

During burning and mop up operations they were supported by engine crewssimilar to Australian tankers and slip-on units, or with miles of hose laid outalong containment lines to pump water into remote locations.

“It was really amazing to see the way these crews worked, with all 20crew members walking in single file according to rank, both in camp and on thefire ground,” Dean said.

“It’s not the sort of thing you see on fires in Australia.”

There are also a huge number of aircraft used on the fires.

Some are tasked to drop water on the fires to cool down and slow aburning fire front, others are used to observe fire behaviour in remote areasor to drop incendiary devices to strategically introduce fire and burn outground between the wildfire front and containment lines.

The forests were also different from Australia, which took some gettingused to.

The major forest type was Douglas fir, often with rhododendron and mapleunderstorey. Other species included sugar pine, knob cone pine and the rare andendangered Port Orford cedar.

On some divisions, crews were required to wash their boots and vehiclesin sterile baths each day before and after work to make sure that a root rotdisease that was threatening the cedar was not brought in by firefighters.

The area in which the fires were burning was important to the nativeAmerican tribes, who have a strong spiritual connection with the wilderness.

The fireground contained a number of historic and contemporary spiritualsites.

The incident management team consulted with native American communitieson a daily basis and tactical decisions were taken to protect areas identifiedby the tribes.

“The forests were really magnificent, and I had the ‘pleasure’ ofspending three days hiking into some of the most amazing forests to scout outpotential containment lines,” Dean said.

“While the scenery was fantastic, my fitness and navigational skillswere certainly put to the test. A firefighter from Alaska, Jake Livingstone, and I hiked with thefull line pack and a pulaski for more than eight miles each day into the Siskiyouwilderness.

“Each day we descended 1000 metres into Blue Creek and then back upanother 1000 metres into the wilderness area, all the while assessing andmapping a potential containment strategy, before turning and hiking back out.”

The line pack, which firefighters must wear at all times on the fireline, contained six litres of water, food, other firefighting supplies and afire shelter, which a fire fighter can remove from the pack and wriggle into ifthey find themselves in front of an advancing fire and unable to escape.

Thankfully none of the Australians had to use a fire shelter while onthe fire line.

However, in a tragic incident that unfolded while Dean and Duncan wereworking, one US firefighter had to deploy his shelter when a fire suddenlyshifted direction and rushed towards him.

In a sobering reminder of the dangers of firefighting he did notsurvive, despite being inside his shelter, and was killed in the line of duty.

Ten days later another nine firefighters were killed in a helicoptercrash, just 70km to the south at the Iron Fire complex.

At the time Dean and Duncan returned to Australia in August 2008, 20firefighters had died in the US in the current fire season.

It was no holiday for the Australian firefighters.

A typical working day began with a briefing at 6am, a quick breakfast,then out to the staging area to conduct a further, more detailed briefing withthe firefighters and taskforce leaders in their divisions, before directing theday’s operations.

Most days the divisional commanders would work on the fire line tillaround 7:30pm before returning to camp, having a quick dinner then attending a9pm meeting with the incident operations manager.

The Australians, like the rest of the camp, would then turn in for arough night of sleep in a one-person tent, as the temperature in camp droppedclose to freezing overnight.

“There wasn’t a lot of spare time in a day, and as a result I only hadtwo showers in my first 14 day shift,” Dean said.

“The next shift I got lucky and had three showers.

“I also only managed to get two phone calls home in that time as well.There was a phone just sitting on the ground next to an old folding chair inthe camp area.

“I picked it up and dialled, and there was my wife on the line.

“The fire I worked on had burned for three weeks before I arrived andreached a total size of around 50 000 ha by the time we left.”

This is the fourth time Australia has been asked to assist infirefighting in the United States under the Australian Forest Fire ManagementGroup.

Forests NSW has participated in the US fire effort on every occasionsince the group was formed in 2000.

“We deploy people not only as a way of sharing our forest firefightingexperience, but to develop skills and provide invaluable experience that our teamscan bring back to their home country,” said Forests NSW fire branch managerSteve Bishop.

As Bush Telegraph went to press, the tragic Victorian bushfire emergencywas unfolding. A contingent of Forests NSW personnel was sent to Victoria toassist in fighting the unprecedented blazes.

This article appears in the Autumn/Winter 2009 edition of Bush Telegraph Magazine.