Three Hedgehope firefighters in Australia

Monday, 18 November 2019

New Zealander firefighters before they left from Auckland on Sunday night, to assist efforts in Australia.

Ken Keenan is apprehensive about what he will face in Australia, but he's a specialist.

Keenan is the Hedgehope rural fire controller and left for Australia on Sunday.

Hedgehope Rural Fire controller Ken Keenan.

Fellow Hedgehope firefighters Brodie Butcher and Nigel Milne are also going, as well as Jake Wansinkfrom Dunedin.

It was the first trip to Australia for Butcher and Milne and would provide them with good experience, Keenan said.

Southern rural firefighters in Victoria, Australia in 2014. Ken Keenan, middle, with Warren Heslip, Joesevata Natuikata, Vuniani Qoro and Andrew King.

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They are four of an additional 26 firefighters who went to fight some of the 70 bushfires currently blazing across Queensland and New South Wales where a state of fire emergency had been called.

This is Keenan's fifth tour of Australia in the past 16 years.

'I'm a bit apprehensive about what we're going to strike, but we're specialists and know what the conditions are going to be like,' Keenan said.

'The size of the fire is amazing.'

The firefighters are prepared if they find themselves in harms way.

We're trained to not get into dangerous positions, he said.

The communication systems crews use provide instant updates on weather conditions.

The New Zealand firefighters would be told where in Australia they were being sent once they landed.

They will be relieving some firefighters who have been at the front for weeks, Keenan said.

'It'll go on for months, the fire season is just beginning.'

Four people have lost their lives in the fires across Queensland and New South Wales.

The fires have been burning since September.

There were already 25 New Zealand firefighters in Australia before Sunday.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesman Paul Turner said firefighting conditions were tough at the moment.

'The hot, very dry and windy conditions are causing extreme wildfire behaviour,' he said.

Queensland Bureau of Meteorology images showed the smoke haze had reached the North Island.