LOWERED IN: Dalmeny RFS brigade member Jason Snell is lowered into the fire near Goulburn.
LOWERED IN: Narooma RFS brigade member Daniel Bailey is lowered into the fire near Goulburn.
RAFT TEAM: The RAFT team manhandle the "Bambi Bucket".
BELLY DUMPER: The Bell 212 helicopter with its large belly tank,
BAMBI BUCKET: The Rural Fire Service's Kawasaki BK117 helicopter and its “Bambi Bucket”.
A GROUP of Rural Fire Service firefighters from the Far South Coast have just returned from an aerial assault on a bushfire near Goulburn.
Travelling up to Goulburn were Daniel Bailey from the Narooma RFS brigade, Jason Snell from the Dalmeny RFS brigade, Colin Knight from the Malua Bay RFS brigade and Damian Oborn from the Bingi RFS brigade.
The local firefighters were sent Goulburn Airport on Monday to be deployed to a remote area fire by helicopter, as the area was not accessible by vehicle.
Mr Bailey said the fire northwest of Nerriga and east of Goulburn was only accessible by specialist Remote Area Firefighting Team (RAFT) members, who were winched in.
“We were deployed on Monday to the fire due to the Catastrophic Fire Danger Index predicted for the following day on Tuesday,” he said.
“The fire we were deployed to had a very high chance of spreading into nearby pine plantations only a few kilometres away, and then continuing on to the Shoalhaven region to possibly cause further havoc and devastation.
“It took approximately five hours to contain and blackout the fire, and we were assisted by Hornsby RAFT, and the Rural Fire Service's Kawasaki BK117 helicopter, the one we were winched in from, with its “Bambi Bucket”, and the Bell 212 helicopter with its large belly tank.”