They had spent the night down at the Menai bushfire. Given it was still burning we all prepared ourselves for the inevitable call from our communications centre. It came, and off we went.
The next 14 hours were what campaign bushfires are always like for fire crews on the ground. A degree of confusion, periods of hard dirty work followed by periods of boredom, feeling hungry and hot, and always not really knowing what is going on elsewhere.
There were firefighters from Fire and Rescue NSW, the Rural Fire Service, the National Parks and Wildlife Service and local people organised in community fire units. Everyone got on fine, and we got the job done. With hindsight it is a testament to all involved that no lives or property were lost. It was a big fire right up against the edge of our biggest city.
But the real point of the story is that it happened in mid April. The fire services don’t plan for major fires halfway through autumn.
It was so far outside of the bushfire season that aircraft chartered for firefighting operations had been returned to the northern hemisphere. It is yet another sign of how our ecosystem is changing.
A warming climate doesn’t just mean average temperatures increase (although we are certainly seeing that). It also means more extreme weather behaviour. Like a spread of record breaking hot days in April, and unseasonable high winds. All this means more bushfires.
My job is to deal with that. People like me do the best we can with the resources we are given. But the changes occurring to our climate are creating challenges beyond what men and women with fire engines can deal with.
Climate change: two words that some seem scared to use when talking about that unseasonable heat and fires that are pushing further into the year. And closer to our communities.
This is a problem that is larger than the men and women who have always put their bodies on the line to stand firm in front of the blazing grass until their shirts drip wet.
We all have to band together to fight this problem. And we have to start by giving it a name.
Political action on the cause of extreme weather behaviour, on our carbon economy and consequent climate change, is what will really make a difference on the fire grounds of the future.
Antinuclear 
Leave a comment