Sask. firefighters return from 38-day stint in Australia

Two Saskatchewan firefighters returned to Saskatoon on Thursday night after spending 38 days helping battle the wildfires in Australia.

“The hardest thing that we saw there was the amount of people that are losing homes, the loss of life, how it’s affecting everybody right across New South Wales, Victoria, Southern Australia,” said Phane Ray, a forest protection officer from Île-à-la-Crosse.

“So that’s a big thing that leaves a mark on us. It’s just something that we never really see back home here in North America.”

The second returning firefighter, Kevin Buettner from Creighton, said the volatility of the fire in Australia is also something we don’t usually see here in Canada.

“They have had a severe drought going on for probably two years now so the conditions were just right for fire to happen,” he said.

“The speed, the type of vegetation there, the dry conditions and the winds obviously, but the one thing I really noticed was the type of trees. The gum trees have a really loose bark on them and the indications I had from some of the folks there was that when this fire started and went up the escarpment, the ember storm went for 35 kilometres so (there was) just a massive spread of embers and fire over the landscape and you just can’t get everywhere at the same time.”

When the volunteer opportunity came up to help with the crisis in Australia, both Ray and Buettner jumped at the opportunity but for different reasons.

Buettner didn’t even give it much thought, saying he has done this for so long that “when there is fire out there, people in need, I like to get out there and lend some support.”

For Ray, it was an opportunity to check something off his bucket list and do some good at the same time.

“It has always been kind of a dream to go there, not so much to fight fire but just to go down there and see the country,” he said. “And this was a good opportunity to go there and help people also.”

But when asked what will stick with them the most from their experiences, both men answered in the same way — the people.

“(It was) the resiliency of the folks and the fact that the majority of the folks that are out there are volunteers,” said Buettner.

“It is heartwarming in a sense just to see how many people there (are) doing it just to help out neighbours and friends — and the country, for that matter.”