‘It was like a bomb had gone off,’ helicopter pilot says of Fingal bushfire

A helicopter pilot working with the Tasmania Fire Service to protect Fingal says the fires have been getting “worse and worse”.

HELICOPTER pilot James Brient has been working with the Tasmania Fire Service to battle bushfires in the Fingal area in the state’s North-East since Monday.

“Today it’s very smoky, but the last couple of days it was like a bomb had gone off,” he told the Mercury today.

“Lots of big flames, trees on fire, falling trees, rock slides, all that sort of thing. Very hot.”

Mr Brient said five helicopters are working out of Fingal trying to on contain the blaze.

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Mr Brient said yesterday’s focus was trying to prevent flames reaching Fingal and today efforts focused on preventing the fire jumping the road and making its way to Mathinna.

“We’ve just been working with ground crews and heavy machinery to just try and get it under control basically,” he said.

“It’s been running fairly well, just working in front of bulldozers and in with ground crews doing back-burns, dropping [water] on burning trees and chasing the fire and slowing it down so the guys can catch it.”

Tasmanian Helicopters pilot James Brient at Fingal. PICTURE CHRIS KIDD

Mr Brient said today’s conditions were favourable for backburning, but the fire, which was believed to have been deliberately lit near Tower Hill in November, has been “just getting worse and worse”.

“Around here I’ve been to a lot of the smaller [fires] around the Calder Valley where this one started and up around the Fingal area and a bit on the East Coast as well.”

Mr Brient said thick smoke was making collecting water with the helicopter difficult.

“There’s a lot of water around, but it’s a bit challenging today because of the smoke to get to it and spot it,” he said.