Let's Hear it for our Fire Fighters

[supernova1965]

I just thought I would call for acclimation's for our Fire Fighters.
They are doing a great job and deserve our praise!:clap::party2::clap:

[BerrieK]

I couldn't agree more Warren.

Thanks to everyone involved - from the volunteers who feed the firies, the fire fighters themselves, volunteers who use their heavy machinery to help build containment lines, to the administrators at the other end of the spectrum.

Kerrie :)

[Ric]

It's shaping up to be a bugger of a season. We've already had four total fire bans in one week, the first time ever for November.

It's a hot, dry, dirty job and they deserve all our support.

[AstralTraveller]

They have my total admiration and I'm amazed at what they do. I went for a picnic yesterday and in 36C heat I just hid in the shade and waited for a change. How people put on body-covering clothes and then go near a fire in that heat - for hours at a time - is quite beyond me. I know I spend too much time in the air-con to be aclimatised to heat but still what they do just ain't natural.

A couple of years ago I got into a conversation with a dozer driver who mostly worked in forestry but also at times worked fighting fires. Some of the stories were just amazing. When building containment lines they have to tow a vehicle behind the dozer in case they need to escape. No wonder the Tojo looked a bit second-hand. Sometimes the hills are so steep they can't get the 4WD up them so they tie a few to the back of a dozer and pull them up.

At one point they were going to get caught by the fire so they made a large clearing and left the dozers in the middle. The controllers told them to drive out along a certain road, which they did, only to find themselves on the wrong side of a locked gate. :eyepop: After breaking a few chains trying to get through they eventually had to go out along another road. The fire was so close they had a chopper escorting them to let them know whether to go forward or back. They got out with 5 minutes to spare.

Like I said - total admiration.