Nelson Tasman firefighters join national team flying out to Australia

Wednesday, 8 January 2020

Four firefighters from the Nelson region are shipping out to Canberra to help battle the devastating Australian bushfires.

The crew are just four of a larger contingent of Kiwi firefighters who will be deploying to help fight the bushfires that have burnt out of control across Australia's east coast for five months.

Erik Wardrop, from Golden Bay, is one of the team heading out on Wednesday afternoon to spend two weeks helping Australian firefighters battle the blazes.

He spent about a month fighting the Pigeon Valley fire early last year. He said he wasn't worried about going over to help out, but had a 'healthy respect for the situation'.

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'The situation is fairly serious over there, but typically these trips are quite good: you work with good people, you put the skills you have to work and you pick up new techniques.

'Crew safety is our first priority, and what we can do to help the communities over there is a close second to that … We'll do whatever we can within our skills and experience to help as we can,' he said.

Wardrop said he had about 20 years' experience in 'vegetation fire suppression' as part of his work in the forestry industry in Nelson since the early 2000s.

'I'm now living in Golden Bay and am involved with the volunteer Wainui fire brigade, and I've just always kept my name on the list for international deployment.'

He said he would find out where in Australia he would be deployed after they arrived in Canberra and debriefed, but was expecting to spend two five-day shifts fighting the fire with one day off in between.

Wardrop will be joined by Steve Packer, Charles Pickett, and Cory Rusbatch.

The fires have killed dozens of people and countless millions of animals, caused mass evacuations and choked cities across the Australian east coast and even in New Zealand with smoke as they burn about 5 million hectares of land.

The Nelson crew will join 17 other firefighters from Southland, the West Coast, Canterbury, and the North Island, in a contingent made up of four five-person crews and a team leader.

Though this is the first deployment of the new year, FENZ has already sent out 179 people to help Australian firefighters since the end of October last year