New Zealand: Firefighters Praised for fighting Australian wildfires.

A Southland firefighter says “Black Summer” in Australia was something he had never witnessed before.

Kenneth Keenan, of Hedgehope, was among several Southland firefighters who have been recognised for their efforts fighting wildfires in Australia.

Dubbed “Black Summer”, that bushfire season was the worst in history. It claimed 26 lives, including six firefighters, and destroyed 2448 homes, 5.5 million hectares of land and more than one billion animals.

Keenan said he had never seen anything like it.

“The nature of the fire was … unbelievable.”

The crews were re-learning a lot of their training on the go, and it was a great learning curve, he said.

He was proud to receive the citation and said it showed the commitment and the high level of training involved.

“We must be doing something right.”

Principal rural fire officer Timo Bierlin, of Invercargill, deputy principal rural fire officer Hamish Angus, of Te Anau, Graeme Appleby, of Drummond, Allan Jones, Kenneth Keenan, Nigel Milne and Brodie Butcher, all of Hedgehope, were awarded the New South Wales Premier’s Bushfire Emergency Citation by Southland District mayor Gary Tong on Tuesday.

The seven firefighters were part of a 20-man contingent from the southern region who went to New South Wales during 2019-2020 bushfire season after their Australian counterparts put out a plea for help.

Six deployments of personnel from the southern district were deployed between November 2019 and February 2020.

Bierlin said the men left with the Anzac spirit in mind and a “we are stronger together” attitude.

“We left our families and Southland behind to face the red demon.

“We saw things and been in situations that we won’t forget for a long time. But we also gained valuable experience and skills that we brought back home to Southland, contributing to making our communities stronger and helping protect what matters.”

Source: Stuff.co.nz