SYDNEY, Australia: Volunteer firefighters in Australia are intentionally burning the undergrowth in the country’s forests to reduce fuel levels ahead of what is anticipated to be a particularly severe fire season, reminiscent of the devastating “Black Summer” blazes.
While deadly wildfires have ravaged forests in Canada, Greece, Hawaii, and various parts of the world this year, Australia stands out due to its heavy reliance on a volunteer force of approximately 190,000 individuals to combat wildfires.
These brave volunteers demonstrated their dedication during the catastrophic “Black Summer” fires of 2019-2020, which claimed 33 lives and countless animals, destroyed thousands of homes, and decimated vast stretches of eucalyptus forest.
However, there is growing concern among these volunteers that their brigades may not be adequately equipped to handle the challenges posed by more intense and frequent fires, a trend exacerbated by global warming.
Andy Hain, a 41-year-old volunteer with the NSW Rural Fire Service and a father of two, voiced his apprehensions, stating, “It’s terrifying, but if we were to face a situation like the 2019-20 year after year, I don’t know how we could sustain that. I don’t believe it’s sustainable.”
In the event of recurring fires on the scale of the “Black Summer,” Australia and other nations may need to intensify their cooperation by sharing personnel and resources to a greater extent than they currently do. Hain, who has dedicated nearly a decade to volunteering in Picton, a rural community southwest of Sydney with a population of about 5,000, stressed the need for increased collaboration.
Despite wetter conditions in the aftermath of the “Black Summer,” the NSW Rural Fire Service has issued a warning that the threat of grass fires is the most severe it has been in the past two decades. This underscores the ongoing challenges Australia’s volunteer firefighters face as they work tirelessly to mitigate the risk of wildfires.
