Readers’ Corner

Readers’ Corner is a new section of Fire Australia that allows members of our audience to share with the broader readership. Our first entry is from ACT Volunteer Brigades Association President Allison Ballard.

ABLAZE: BLACK SUMMER THROUGH THE VOLUNTEER LENS

Below: Awestruck – preparing for the long battle ahead. In July 2020, the ACT Volunteer Brigades Association (ACTVBA) Vice President Matt Dutkiewicz, a volunteer firefighter with the Rivers Brigade of the ACT Rural Fire Service (ACTRFS), proposed a book to document the 2019–20 bushfire season.

The book would provide volunteers with a great opportunity to debrief about a long and devastating season, particularly given most normal debriefing opportunities had been interrupted by pandemic restrictions.

The ACTVBA asked members from the ACT’s eight volunteer firefighting brigades to send in their photos from the frontlines. Just over 700 photos, received from more than 80 firefighters, were selected by popular vote for inclusion.

After thousands of hours of work, both offline and through countless Zoom meetings, the book committee’s volunteer editorial team—Allison Ballard, Matt Dutkiewicz, Gary Hooker (Guises Creek Brigade) and Mark Zorzi (Rivers Brigade)—produced a beautiful 400-plus-page hardcover photo-journal coffee table book, Ablaze: the long, hot summer of 2019–2020. Canberra’s volunteer firefighters reflect on ‘Black Summer’.

The book was launched on 26 September 2021, and all ACTRFS members who were active with their brigades during the 2019–20 season were given a complimentary copy of the limited first edition.

Ablaze tells the story of how our firefighters worked on fires along the eastern seaboard, from Queensland throughout NSW, from the beginning to the end of that devastating season.

The book was a means of not only recognising and thanking our volunteers, but also showing how the small jurisdiction of the ACT really punches above its weight in helping communities across Australia. Association President, Allison Ballard Volunteer firefighter with ACTRFS’s Molonglo Brigade

The second edition of Ablaze: the long, hot summer of 2019–2020 is available for pre-order from the ACTVBA website: https://www. actvolunteerbrigadesassociation.com/ shop. All funds go to the ACTVBA to support ACTRFS volunteer firefighters.

To share your letter to the editor, opinion, photos or stories with Fire Australia’s Readers’ Corner contact magazine@fpaa.com.au.

PHOTO: GARY HOOKER