SWAN Hill’s brave volunteer firefighters returned to their civilian duties this week after a successful mission to NSW.
About 50 CFA volunteers from the District 18 region served and returned from the State Mine Fire near Lithgow, assisting their New South Wales counterparts at the blaze.
Five tankers and two specialist vehicles were taken along — Swan Hill and Lake Boga fire trucks were seen around Australia on nightly TV news bulletins.
Strike Team leader Nipper Turner said while his team’s primary task was backing up NSW crews, they were close to the action.
“We’d seen a lot of NSW trucks with mirrors melted off them,” he said.
Starting off with a 12-hour day on the Saturday, the first team worked from 9am to 6pm on both the Sunday and Monday — all about one metre away from the fire front.
“It was hot and dirty work,” Mr Turner said.
For more on this story see Friday’s Guardian (November 1).
