Mount Marlo Fire

The fire that was discovered last Monday during our RART standby did grow: Parks had it under control by Wednesday but the fire breached the containment lines.

A crew from Blue Mountains RAFT was requested for Thursday and Friday but only required on Friday. This was a typical mop-up job: Parks gave the two RFS crews the west flank to check. The pink team would land on the North pad and make its way west and south; the black team would land on the South pad and make its way west and north. The hope was that we would meet somewhere on the fire perimeter!

I was with two Hawkesbury firefighters – pink team – and our first tasking from the pilot was to trim a felled tree that made landing difficult. Ben was on the chainsaw and Ivan and I were moving the branches away. While focused on the task, we attracted the ire of bull ants: the nest was obscured by branches! They spread everywhere and we all got bitten! After having warned over the radio everybody who was going to the North pad of the belligerent ants, we set out and followed the burnt edge. The fire was dead and we found the three hot spots identified by the FLIR run early morning. We also hooked up with the Black team.
After an excellent lunch – Parks knows how to look after its people – we continued to the South Pad where the Div Com was. We were released and Parkair 1 came to pick us up! 

The fire is contained and should be declared under control tomorrow!