‘Fighting a losing battle from the start’: NSW firefighters to be sent to LA after horror blazes

NSW authorities will waste little time trying to learn lessons from the horror California blazes, which have killed dozens and destroyed thousands of homes.

Firefighting authorities from NSW will send officers to Los Angeles in the immediate aftermath of their hellish blazes on a fact-finding mission to prevent similar disasters here.

The commissioners of Fire and Rescue NSW and the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) both confirmed to The Saturday Telegraph officers would be sent over in the wake of the inferno which has razed more than 12,000 properties and killed at least 25 people.

“We’re looking at sending some officers across between the RFS and Fire and Rescue … to talk to California authorities to see if there’s any initial lessons that they identified that we can learn from ahead of (their) official investigations,” RFS Commissioner Rob Rogers said.

His counterpart at Fire and Rescue NSW, Commissioner Jeremy Fewtrell, also confirmed Aussie officers would be sent over in a bid to quickly learn lessons from the wildfires.

“We’ve got connections with our colleagues in LA and around the world, and whenever there’s a major incident like this we’re very keen to learn,” he said.

A motorcyclist stops to look at a burning home in the Altadena area of LA. PIcture: AFP

“We’re definitely going to be tapping in to the lessons that come out of the Los Angeles fires.

“It’s a really useful opportunity to have some of our people on the ground and talking to those involved and hear it from them first-hand.”

Both commissioners said the fanning of the LA flames by the hurricane-force Santa Ana winds had made containing the blazes almost impossible.

“I really feel for the firefighters in LA because they were fighting a losing battle from the start because of the challenges of that wind … that’s why it’s so important to reduce all-over elements of that risk,” Commissioner Fewtrell said.

He said there were parallels between the fringes of Los Angeles and Sydney’, where homes are nestled among thick bushland.

Both commissioners said NSW authorities had honed their firefighting abilities over decades of fighting wild blazes, but despite wet weather hammering parts of the state over the last week, both said their organisations remained on high-alert for fires across NSW in the coming months.

“I’ve been saying to our crews in the lead-up to this season, there’s still the potential for quite intense and active events to happen, although they’re more inclined to happen in small and isolated pockets,” Commissioner Fewtrell said.

Rob Rogers, Commissioner of the Rural Fire Service. Picture: NCA NewsWIRE/ Monique Harmer

NSW Fire and Rescue Commissioner Jeremy Fewtrell.

“(But) it doesn’t have to be a really big bad campaign like 2019-20 to cause significant impacts on people across NSW.

“The message to our people is we’re not dropping our guard, we’re still ready to go because there could still be something significant we need to deal with before the end of the season.”

In 2018 a NSW government review of arson laws resulted in the penalty for firebugs lighting bushfires being increased from 14 years imprisonment to 21 years.

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