After facing walls of fire, fatigue and danger during Canada’s record wildfires, Australian firefighters have returned home to heatwaves – and are preparing to do it all again on their own turf
‘The whole country was stretched thin,’ says RFS volunteer Ash Morrow, who has returned from a firefighting deployment in Canada straight into record temperatures and an incoming El Niño. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian
Australian firefighters are at the forefront of international cooperation to deal with the Flame Age. Alliances are required as nations battle wildfire seasons that their own emergency services cannot combat alone. In Canada, Australians were joined by New Zealanders, Americans, Mexicans and South Africans. But this sharing of the load is becoming endangered by the vanishing window between fire seasons across the globe.
“Fire’s fire,” says Callaghan. “There’s three sides to the fire triangle – heat, fuel and oxygen. Remove one of those, it’s good to go. You can do that anywhere in the world.” Morrow spent about 120 hours in the air, where seismic exploration lines made the Canadian countryside look like a waffle. He was startled by the sight of massive oil and gas fields surrounded by wildfires and smoke plumes.
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