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Above – Ashburton firefighter John Ferguson’s fellow Kiwi volunteers fight a blaze at Laguna in New South Wales. PHOTO JOHN FERGUSON Right – Ashburton rural firefighter John Ferguson is ready to go back to Australia. SUSAN SANDYS 010120-SS-0163
Answering the call By Susan Sandys
susan.s@theguardian.co.nz
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Smoke from the deadly Australian bushfires shrouded Mid Canterbury and the rest of the South Island on the first day of 2020 yesterday. It enveloped the district with an ominous orangey-tinged grey high-cloud haze, and turned residents’ thoughts to the devastation unfolding across the Tasman in New Year’s blazes. And for Ashburton firefighter John Ferguson, it brought back memories of fighting the fires just last month. “I feel sorry for the firies over there, we saw it first-hand, how stretched and stressed they are for resources,” Ferguson said. “The people we were with had been fighting fires for weeks, you could see it on their faces, they were under stress,” he said.
Ferguson was in the country as part of a Kiwi strikeforce contingent, alongside fellow Ashburton fireman Dean Carr and three other Mid-South Canterbury area firefighters. They were fighting fires in the Cessnock area inland from Newcastle, protecting houses in valleys in the small town of Laguna. They were there for two weeks, putting in 17 to 18 hour days, and succeeded in not losing any homes. Official temperatures climbed into the 40s, which saw the mercury at the fire front skyrocket to 56°C. “You drink a lot of water,” Ferguson said. “We didn’t see the sun either because the smoke was filtering it out, so you don’t get the direct heat from the sun.” He said it was likely he would go back to Australia alongside fellow Kiwis
sometime over the next two months, answering the call to help in the face of the ferocious and unprecedented fires. “You just want to help your neighbours,” he said. The haze in the atmosphere which over-arched Mid Canterbury yesterday replaced the fine weather initially forecast for New Year’s Day, completely blocking out the sun by afternoon, and hiding the iconic Southern Alps from Ashburton. The hazy conditions began to set in upon the sun rising on New Years Day, following the creating of a blood red moon on New Year’s Eve. MetService meteorologist April Clark said the smoke had been brought to the South Island by a northwest flow from Australia. It was expected to begin dissipating from today with a southwest change expected.
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