Southland firefighters ready to head back to Australian bush fires

Friday, 3 January 2020

A Rural Fire Service (RFS) firefighter conducts mopping up near the town of Sussex Inlet on December 31, 2019 in Sydney, Australia. New Zealand will now send more firefighters to assist with the fires.

Southland firefighters are preparing to head back into unprecedented Australian bushfires.

On Friday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister of Internal Affairs Tracey Martin said a further 22 firefighters were being sent to help fight the Australian fires.

Hedgehope firefighter Brodie Butcher could be set for a second tour of Australia in as many months.

'The devastation caused by these fires is taking a substantial toll on our Australian neighbours and we will continue to do what we can to assist as they deal with this extremely dynamic, dangerous and ongoing situation,' Ardern said.

Since late October 2019, 157 New Zealanders had been deployed to assist with the Australia bush fires.

Firefighters are seen trying to protect homes around Charmhaven, New South Wales. [source: NSW rural fire service]

* Sydney covered in bushfire smoke for second time in three days

* Three Hedgehope firefighters in Australia**

Hedgehope firefighter Brodie Butcher said people could not comprehend the bush fires until they had seen them with their own eyes.

He returned from the fires in December and said he would be ready to go back if called upon.

Butcher said surveying the burnt landscape was harrowing.

Driving on the highways in Australia and seeing the destruction the fires had caused was difficult to look at, he said.

Photos and footage from the fires looked horrible, Butcher said, but it not until he saw it with his own eyes did he grasp the scale of the situation.

Friday's announcement said the crew of 22 would leave on January 8, and while Butcher had been told to be ready, it had not yet been confirmed.

Butcher had been given a tap on the shoulder about overseas tours before, which had not eventuated.

'You don't know until the day off if you're going or not,' Butcher said.

Hedgehope rural fire controller Ken Keenan is also ready for his sixth tour of Australia in 17 years, after he too went late in 2019.

Keenan is also in the 22 set to go next week, and said the fires had ramped up since he got back in December.

'These fires are now unprecedented and things have changed so much since we got back,' Keenan said.

'We don't know exactly where we're going [in Australia], things are pretty fluid there.'

Drummond rural fire deputy controller Graeme Appleby will join Butcher and Keenan in Australia.

'I'm not apprehensive about going, but there is always risk,' Appleby said.

'I'll definitely go if they want me to, but some of those shots on TV are quite dawnting.'