Days become weeks for ‘crazy’ exhausted heroes

Firefighters from Taree have been working almost without pause for the past 14 days.

A firefighter prepares to battle one of dozens of blazes on the NSW mid-north coast. Picture: Jane Dempster

When firefighters from the Taree 453 unit of Fire and Rescue NSW wiped ashen embers from their faces on Tuesday afternoon, their eyes were assaulted by a 20m wall of flame emerging from an otherwise jet-black panorama.

They had been working almost without pause for the past 14 days, on duty from morning until late, moving quickly in their heavy protective clothing around the micro-environments created by the fires that often soared above 50C.

On Tuesday, their routine began by loading up their truck with water, speeding through roadblocks and smoke to wherever they were needed.

After wrestling with hoses and guiding blazes away from spreading, they would return to fill up their trucks before dashing to their next fire.

“We’ve got areas the size of European­ countries on fire here,” said Gaven Muller, acting inspector of Fire and Rescue on the north coast.

READ MORE: Live coverage — new fire fronts break out | After fires, issues to resolve: Kelly | Ill winds reignite menace | Relief as armageddon avoided | Military may be put in firing line | Another blow for face of bushfire crisis | ‘Obnoxious uncle’ Joyce under attack

He had conducted strategic burns at Wallabi and around the Khappinghat National Park the day before, on what was the least busy day he had since Friday.

Despite the fatigue of his week, the station commander is calm when he parks his ute in behind the 453 unit’s truck on the edge of Khappinghat National Park in front of a home and garden engulfe­d by flames.

At one point, firefighters were forced to leave the property to rescue­ the occupants of a car stranded by rapidly progressing flames, ushering them to safety — the centre of an open paddock — while fire surrounded them.

They promised the car’s occupants they wouldn’t let them burn, and would keep an eye on them as they returned to a home they had just been attending to.

When being escorted to safety, the driver of the car thanked firefighter Mike Hardy and told him his unit were “heroes”.

“We’re not heroes, we’re f . . king crazy,’’ he said as he waved the car away from danger.

During a brief reprieve when the truck was being filled up with water, Mr Hardy said the past two weeks had been “just constant”.

“We’re exhausted when we wake up,” he told The Australian.

Earlier, his unit’s truck had driven­ past fallen trees and singed green highway signs on the closed Pacific Highway as it sped to tame a fire from blowing on to the road’s bushy median strip.

Firefighter Nathan Cooke has worked with Fire and Rescue NSW for about six years, and said he had never experienced bushfires like the ones that have consumed NSW since Friday. “I don’t even know what day of the week it is.”