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The Skycrane is a frontline fire fighting helicopter with a suction hose that can refill from lakes and dams.
Dealing with a bull snake in the cockpit of a helicopter isn’t something you necessarily learn as a volunteer fire fighter in Wellsford.
Nonetheless, that was one of the adventures Auckland’s deputy principal rural fire officer, Scott Marchant, was involved in when he spent nearly six weeks in the United States recently, as part of a NZ/Australian fire fighting contingent.
“At first we thought the snake was a rattlesnake because it had the same markings,” Scott says. “It was spotted when the helicopter was in the air. The pilot came down and we pulled the machine to bits trying to find the snake without success. Two days later, when the helicopter was airborne again, the pilot spotted it sunbaking in the glass bowl beneath him.
“The wildlife over there was really interesting – we had a mountain lion hanging around at one stage, and saw lots skunks, squirrels, deer and friendly little black bears that loved our peanut butter sandwiches.”
Scott was one of 69 volunteers from Australia and NZ sent over to relieve American fire fighters in Washington State, who were battling some of the worst blazes in that country’s history.
“NZ, Australia, Canada and the US have an international understanding that if the need arises, they will send in support fire fighters to assist. The last time we went to the US was in 2008.”
The Kiwis were deployed to three forest and plantation pine fires – a 36,000 hectare fire at Chelan, a 30,000ha fire at Kettle Falls and a 200,000ha fire at Okanogan.
“When we left, all three fires were contained and they were waiting for the snow to finish the job.”
Scott’s first role was to manage the helicopter reconnaissance flying for the incident management teams and approve the landing sites for the 10 to 15 Iroquois and Skycrane helicopters involved. The helicopters can carry up to 10,000-litres of water.
During the day, the temperature ranged from 26C to 43C, and at night it dropped to between three and 10 degrees.
Scott says one of the things that impressed him was the sheer size of the areas they were managing, where it was nothing to drive 240kms a day around the perimeter of a fire.
“We use the same fire fighting techniques and skills, but over there it is on such a massive scale. It was an awesome experience and I learned a lot about procedures, which is good stuff to bring back to Auckland.”
In most cases the causes of the fires were believed to be dry lightning strikes.
Scott has been a volunteer in Wellsford for 25 years and was awarded his Gold Star at the brigade’s recent awards night. In his absence, his award was accepted by his eldest son Cameron.
“We celebrated my youngest son’s first birthday the day before I flew out.
“I absolutely loved the US experience, but it was also good to get home.”
