Bronwyn Waters is an old hand at fighting North American bush fires (or wildfires as they call them there).
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
This time last year, she helped the Canadians tackle blazes in British Columbia.
Now, she’s flying out to help the Californians.
A year ago, the RFS coordinator for the Northern Tablelands spent 35 days imparting the expertise she has gained in Glen Innes as fires raged across the Canadian province.
She’s to do the same, for the American state as fires rage around towns in the north of the state.
After returning last year, she said it was a “fantastic opportunity”, adding, “It was a really good experience to learn how differently Canadians do things but also how much we do things the same way.”
She went over as an aviation specialist, highly skilled in how to fight fires from the air. Her role in a management team was to work out what contribution aircraft could make to both assessing a fire and then fighting it.
There are similarities between Australian bush fires and North American wildfires but also some differences, particularly in the kind of vegetation. Gum trees here fuel fire, for example.
British Columbia, in contrast, can be steeply mountainous and packed with dense pine forest, much of it inaccessible to vehicles.
The Californian fires are in mountains to the north of the state. The area is also quite urban – towns are dotted within burning areas.
At least six people have already died and more than a thousand homes destroyed.
Nearly 13,000 firefighters have been involved in combating the blazes, going from all over the the United States.
And now from New England in Australia.
