Bungonia firefighter Paul Madsen had only three days to prepare for an escalating wildfire emergency in the British Columbia.
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The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) Senior Field Officer who lives in Marulan left for Canada in early August along with a team of 34 NPWS specialist firefighters to help with an international firefighting operation.
Mr Madsen, who took up the role of Divisional Commander for the operation, had been deployed interstate, but never overseas.
“I figured this opportunity would come once in a lifetime, and you take opportunities when they present themselves,” he said, recalling his final thoughts before departure.
His team were amongst the first Australians to tackle the fire which was to eventually burn through 175 thousand hectares of land.
About 350 firefighters from Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Canada banded together for the mission. This included representatives from ACT Parks and Conversation and the Rural Fire Service.
The firefighters were housed on camp ‘Big Sky’ wedged in between the untouched sprawling mountains of Cache Creek and Savona.
It was there the firefighters would wake up as early as 5am and travel up to two hours to their designated areas in teams of five.
Many firefighters faced windy trails and steep mountains. For Mr Marsden, it was the top of a mountain range.
“At the end of the day the common goal was to contain the fire, it didn’t matter what language you spoke or where you were from,” he said.
“Australians are good at standing their ground for firefighting, that’s why they asked us over there.”
He said it was a different style of firefighting, with a heavier reliance on sourcing water from lakes. Despite this variance the majority of the trip ran smoothly.
He admitted the large fire, influenced greatly by the drought, was not completely unfamiliar to him but strongly reinforced his focus for safety.
“Reinforcing safety is the always the number on priority,” he said.
NPWS South Coast Branch Director Kane Weeks said Paul’s years of firefighting experience was an asset to the Canadian authorities and those working alongside him.
British Columbia and Australia have shared firefighting resourced for the past 15 years.
