A Day in the Life of a Wilderness Firefighter

Grant Purcell lifts the lid on one of the most extreme forms of firefighting – from the quiet planning days to the all out battles once bushfires start raging.

 

Thanks to the tough-as-guts G-SHOCK Mudmaster GWGB1000, We Are Explorers is talking to people as rugged and reliable as the watches.

Designed to endure everything from mud and water to big hits and altitude, the Mudmaster lets you focus on the task at hand and is packed with necessary modern features like a dual compass, barometer, altimeter, solar-powered radio-adjusted timekeeping, and a scratch-resistant sapphire screen. It even integrates with an app where you can record waypoints. The metal and carbon fibre construction, combined with a rustic analogue face are reminiscent of that old fourbie that never let you down.

It’s also reminiscent of Grant Purcell, a firefighter who’s battled his fair share of blazes. He shares the reasons that he became a firefighter, how they prepare, and what it’s like to spend days on end tackling an inferno.

What sort of firefighter are you?

I’m a remote area firefighter and I work across the Great Dividing Range. We go where there are no roads, often hiking kilometres in to find the fire’s front or flying in via helicopter.

Yep, I actually go looking for fires | @patsuraseang

We generally undertake ‘dry firefighting’ which means we don’t have a water tank or a hose. Just a rake, a chainsaw, and the knowledge that your mates have your back and you have theirs.

Read more: How To Explore Safely In Bushfire Season

How did you get started? What inspired you to follow this path?

I was always drawn to the bush, and nature in general. As a kid, I’d spend my afternoons with my friends finding new creeks or climbing trees. I loved to explore new places or understand things like why termites build tunnels or why casuarinas grow along rivers.

As an adult, I followed my heart into the study of animals, nature, and conservation. South-eastern Australia, which I call home, only really suffers from one natural disaster regularly: bushfires.

We all know that summer in Australia means mangos, sandy bedsheets, and the smell of eucalyptus burning.

I remember watching the big red trucks with their blue flashing lights as a kid, I always thought that it was cool, and to be honest, I still do.

Read more: 7 Awesome Outdoor Jobs for an Adventure Career

The Day to Day – Planning and Preparing

Not every day do the leaves crunch under your feet like cornflakes between your teeth. Most years the fire season is short-lived, and its momentum dies out quickly as the wind dies down or rain soothes a thirst-stricken landscape.

On those days we don’t stand idle. This is time to plan and to prepare. Apart from the normal work like managing rosters, emails, and paperwork, we spend our time reviewing and upgrading fire trails, coordinating with neighbours on fire risk and access, planning the next lot of hazard reduction burns, and training staff to be ready and better equipped to handle the next big challenge.

Fail to prepare? Prepare for FIRE | @patsuraseang

My team and I use winter to prepare control lines for upcoming hazard reductions. This involves first using topography and the environment to identify naturally strong positions to hold a fire in place. As the planner, I will then create a burn block. In a perfect world, each side of the shape would have a strong containment line, like a river or fire trail, and these would already exist.

However, in real life, there is always a bit of work to connect the firetrail to the river or ensure that the neighbour’s fence line is protected.

A controlled backburn | @escapewithgp

Next comes the ground truthing and environmental assessment. Here I will head out with another firefighter and use flagging tape to identify the line that needs to be prepared using hand tools.

We will look for any threatened species, Aboriginal artefacts, or hazards like big dead trees which could pose a threat to the team.

We also look for unanticipated issues like extreme fuel loads, dumped asbestos, or cliff lines.

Once the line is deemed appropriate environmentally, and safe and effective from a firefighting perspective, a crew of firefighters and I will use a mix of hand tools, like chainsaws, brush cutters, rakehoes (a cross between a rake and shovel) and blowers to prepare a control line. Usually around 1.5-2 metres wide. This is dirty work.

Having durable reliable gear is a must and this is why wearing a durable G-SHOCK watch comes in handy, shock and scratch-resistant, the sun keeps it charged all day and it stands up to the dirt, dust, and grime and keeps on ticking.

As the days stretch out longer and spring hits, we watch the weather closely and test the leaves for moisture content.

This kind of weather doesn’t hang around for long!

This is when we undertake hazard reduction burning. These should be done at an intensity that doesn’t burn the tree canopy and provides important strategic and environmental benefits.

A burn in the Blue Mountains | @escapewithgp

Firstly, by helping to prevent huge fires from forming across landscapes, secondly by providing buffers around homes, and thirdly, by regenerating bushlands that are dependent and adapted to fire over millions of years.

These are different from backburns which are used to fight already out of control blazes. When undertaking a backburn, firefighters will light a second fire in front of a prevailing firefront.

The fire that’s lit by firefighters is forced to burn head on with the existing, incoming fire.

The idea is that the two fires collide like waves and cancel each other out.

Effectively, the original, out of control fire front no longer has any fuel to burn and therefore peters out. Backburning is fighting fire with fire.

When the Fire Starts To Burn – Fighting Bushfires From Dawn til Dusk

Firefighters wake up early, when the haze of smoke still sits over town, and it’s generally in a motel far from home. Breakfast is eaten in gulps, and you begin to drink water. The competition has now begun. Can you keep yourself hydrated, or will heatstroke and cramps prevail? Will you win or lose today? My watch shows the temperature, it’s 30 degrees by the time the morning briefing starts at 8am.

Another grey day on the tools | @escapewithgp

It’s now time to drink your second bottle. Here you’re told where you’re going, what your objective is, who’s in charge, what resources we have, and what to do if something goes wrong.

The briefings are sharp, direct, and always follow the same format. The lessons of the past have been used to ensure they hit all the keynotes and they rarely miss. Bags packed, assignment understood, crew assembled. Drink more water.

Next, the jet engines of the helicopters boom to life. Earplugs get feverishly squished into your ears, and the sand particles whip up and sting your face. Your crew and you jump in, buckle up, and with a thumbs up from the pilot the machine lifts off. Over the bush we fly, a mixture of awe and anticipation written across everyone’s face.

Once on scene and safely out of the helicopter, I ask the crew to take in their surroundings. What time is it? Which direction does the wind blow from? I check my G-SHOCK Mudmaster watch to confirm both, the compass comes in handy for these rapid assessments.

Where is our refuge if things go wrong? I ponder our options and I drink my 4th bottle. It’s now 10am and it’s already 35 degrees, my backpack is heavy, I’m wearing boots, a jacket and a helmet that already threatens to begin pouring with sweat. I look around, where is the fire heading, and how fast? We plan again, and then we get to work.

The goal is generally to make a control line around the fire’s edge. We start from a safe spot known as a heel at the back of the fire and work the flanks.

We safely cut down any burning trees that might fall across the line and call-in helicopters to strategically put water buckets on hotspots and flames. They work with us in symphony and are incredibly skilled. We work hard but we don’t rush.

We take regular short breaks to stay hydrated, by lunch I might have consumed 5 litres of liquid. If I haven’t peed yet, I’ll keep drinking. We must work all day. The sun beats down on us hard and the constant physical work, hot engines and flames mean we sweat all day.

Just working in a perpetual sauna | @escapeewithgp

By mid afternoon our perseverance is paying off, our progress builds motivation. We keep an eye on our surroundings and our teammates. We communicate with other crews and the headquarters, always monitoring weather, fire behaviour, and fatigue. We do what we can to steer and control the fire, but we try not to take extra risks, there’s always tomorrow, but only if you get home safely tonight.

The day ends with a buzz of the alarm from my watch. It’s almost 1730, our extraction time. We pack up our tools and begin the schlep back to the helipad. All around us, the earth is a monotone mosaic of ash and charred wood.

The ground matches the sky | @escapewithgp

The only colour you see other than grey and black is the yellow of your teams’ jackets.

The black ground seems to radiate the sun’s warmth back at you, and the world feels constantly uneven and uphill, the G-SHOCK Mudmaster shows the altitude rise and fall as we scale the slopes and gorges all day.  The soles of our feet hurt. Your hands and face are black from soot congealed with sweat, but the crews’ white teeth pierce the dark surrounds.

Why do we smile? Maybe it’s because we can. Maybe because we’re proud of a hard day’s work. Proud of a friendship forged in fire. Proud to protect the community, or maybe it’s just because I chose the room closest to the pub.

Cheers! | @patsuraseang

Header image by @escapewithgp