Firefighters called in a helicopter and four-wheel-drive vehicle to fight a large scrub fire in Port Levy which could not be accessed by road.
A group of nearby road workers alerted the Diamond Harbour Volunteer Fire Brigade to the fire after spotting smoke coming from a remote farm paddock.
Eight firefighters rushed to the scene of the 3ha blaze down a dirt track off Port Levy-Pigeon Bay Rd about 11.20am on June 5.
Chief fire officer Frank Watson said the area could only be accessed using the brigade’s four-wheel-drive vehicle.
He said the cause of the fire was not suspicious. However, the size of the fire and the rugged terrain meant they had to call in a helicopter to dump monsoon buckets on the blaze.
“It took 10 minutes just to get up to the fire. Probably 30 minutes walking. That’s why we really needed the chopper.”
There was no water available within 1km, forcing the helicopter pilot to fly back and forth from Port Levy to refill the monsoon bucket.
Firefighters also cut down large sections of tussock in the area to slow down the blaze.
“It was a matter of going around manually and cutting those down and then sort of extinguishing the fire around them.”
Between driving to the scene and getting home, the crew spent about eight hours on the job.
Watson said a bulldozer would typically be used to smother a fire of this type, but none could reach the area.
The crew also had to hand-dig a firebreak around the perimeter of the blaze, which stopped it from spreading further.
The fire crew had to continually coordinate with the pilot about which areas were more effective to dump water on and which were better for hand tools.
“A lot of people say firefighting is quite glamorous, but you look at situations like this and in reality it’s a lot of hard, physical work,” Watson said.
A section of native bush next to the farmland also had to be protected from the fire.
The crew had to wear masks to protect themselves from the smoke.
Watson said Banks Peninsula was still “extremely dry”.
He said people need to remain cautious when lighting fires, even though the area was in an open fire season.
