Joanna Tucker,  Yorke Peninsula Country Times

Kadina CFS volunteer Justin Baxter is back in Australia after heeding an SOS call in August to help his United States counterparts.

Mr Baxter completed his 35-day deployment to the US and returned on September 12, along with 66 other Australian firefighters.

He assisted with dozens of major fires across Oregon and was deployed as a strike team leader for the Homestead Complex fires, near the township of Glide, and was stationed in the Cascade Mountains.

The South Australian crews took on frontline and control centre roles amid hot, dry and windy conditions, with a drought leaving forests and grasslands at high fire risk.

“When we arrived at the Homestead Complex, the wildfires had impacted approximately 3851 acres,” Mr Baxter said.

“Our primary mission was to utilise our skills and existing expertise to provide assistance to US teams who have been battling these fire complexes since July.

“Our secondary mission was to provide learning opportunities, and to understand how (the US experience) may improve our existing capabilities and strategies when managing fires in SA.”

Mr Baxter said the SA contingent of eight personnel faced challenges when it came to the steep terrain and vegetation types, which were very different to what was found in SA.

“Once it’s green it won’t burn here, but over there, once it’s green it will still burn,” he said.

“The Homestead Complex was located in dense pine and cedar forests at significant higher altitudes than we normally face.

“Many days were spent working above cloud level, and some crews even experienced overnight snowfalls at elevations starting at 1400 metres above sea level.”

He said he was ecstatic about being able to draw on his wealth of experience from a 22-year-long career with the CFS to assist the US firefighters.

“I never imaged that one day I would have the opportunity to travel overseas to represent SA and apply the skills I have learnt,” Mr Baxter said.

“This demonstrates how much change has occurred over that time, and also speaks to the quality of training and capability within our volunteer emergency services.”

Mr Baxter said most of the work he did was based on foot, and the use of fire trucks by US firefighters was very different to how they were used in SA.

“I walked up and down very steep fire trails with a backpack full of firefighting equipment several times,” Mr Baxter said.

He said his physical training before leaving Australia did not fully prepare him for the steepness of the terrain in Oregon.

Mr Baxter said another challenge was working with firefighters who did not speak English, as many in his crew only spoke Spanish.

“I had to make sure I had an interpreter with me when dealing with certain crew; however, crews typically did have one or two multi-lingual members who would translate, which was of great assistance,” Mr Baxter said.

“The people were so amazing, warm and welcoming.”

Mr Baxter said the entire Homestead Complex was not extinguished yet, but the fires worked on by his division were being managed.

“The conditions are still hot and really dry — a funny looking dry, because everything is still really green, but ignites quite quickly”, he said.

“The operation is still going to be very much ongoing for the entire area, but SA (crew) have made a big impact.”

There were 85 wildfires burning across the US when Mr Baxter left in August, and now there are 61 according to the National Interagency Fire Centre.

Since July, 12 CFS volunteers, three staff and five personnel from the Department for Environment have been sent to Canada and the US from SA.

SA received help from a small number of aviation personnel from the US and Canada during the 2019/2020 fire season.

Related story:  Firefighter on US rescue mission
This article appeared in  Yorke Peninsula Country Times, 17 September 2024.