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| |Home|Past events|January 2003 Fires| | ||||||
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January 2003 Fires |
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| The events of January 2003, of which the climax but not the culmination was the firestorm which inflicted major damage to Canberra on January 18, have been reported in many media and are being debating in various forums. Everybody experienced a different part of the story. Well, this is our bit. It has been assembled from the stories, pictures and notes of those members of the Sutton Volunteer Rural Fire Brigade who were involved in the firefighting effort. It is not an official account. It is just how our guys saw it. | ||||||
| Eddy Tillotson, our official brigade photographer, has caused bemusement at times by his trick of whisking out a tiny but ancient and robust pocket camera from his kit at fire events and recording them for posterity. Nevertheless, he seems to have inspired other firefighters to do the same, and the pictures shown here were taken by various of our crew members over this very nasty season. It is intriguing that the different photographers each have their own style. Some photograph big machines in action, others wild fiery events, others try for shots of firefighting strategy and others are good at the human side. This is a small, but hopefully representative selection, of their efforts. | ||||||
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After the three major fires broke out in the hills to the west of Canberra on January 8, our mob were first sent on the 10th to the McIntyre's Hut fire in the northern Brindabellas, with members of other brigades, to attempt to contain it. Access to the area was difficult. Their first job was putting in rakehoe lines through rugged country. If anyone doubts that there was a heavy fuel burden out there at that time, just look at where the dry vegetation and bark comes up to on Graham Scofield, in the middle of the picture. It was hard work. | |||||
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McIntyre's Hut fire 10 January 2003. Photograph by Eddy Tillotson. |
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| The terrain was rugged, densely vegetated, and a trifle hot underfoot at times. They worked a twelve hour shift that day and came home optimistically, but as it turned out, incorrectly, hoping that they were getting the fire contained. | ||||||
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McIntyre's Hut fire 10 January 2003. Photograph above by Eddy Tillotson, at right by Graham Scofield. |
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The water bombing helicopters were there on the job, trying to douse the really hot spots while the ground crews attempted to prevent the fire from spreading. It looks like our boys did not miss collecting this bucketload by much. Some of our crew members who had been on out of area commitments to the Shoalhaven and other areas had worked with helicopters before, but it was a novel experience for most of our troops. The guys came back with some very admiring tales of the skills of the most proficient of the helicopter pilots. | |||||
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Water bombing helicopter at the McIntyre's Hut fire 10 January 2003. Photograph by Eddy Tillotson. |
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| They successfully stopped the fire front with their rakehoe line on the day, but there was much more to come. | ||||||
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Completed rakehoe line at the McIntyre's Hut fire 10 January 2003. Photograph by Eddy Tillotson. |
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