The global firefighting community is in mourning after the tragic deaths of three US firefighters killed when their Hercules C-130 Hercules crashed heavily in southern NSW.
RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said the men, whose names were released on Friday as Captain Ian McBeth, 44, first officer Paul Clyde Hudson, 42, and flight engineer Rick DeMorgan Jr, 43, were all dedicated to the “art” of aerial firefighting.
“It’s a body blow for everyone in the firefighting fraternity, in the community of NSW and further afield,” he told reporters in Sydney on Friday.
“It’s a confronting and sobering reminder of the enormity of the risk and challenge associated with this fire season.”
The three men, seconded to Australia from the US, died after the water tanker, carrying 15,000 litres of water, smashed into the ground northeast of Cooma on Thursday afternoon and the area is being treated as a crime scene.
Plane owner and operator Coulson Aviation on Friday confirmed the “fallen heroes” who their lives in the crash, the cause of which remains unclear.
A statement on Coulson Aviation’s Facebook page named the three firefighters.
Captain McBeth was married with three children, had served in the military and in the Wyoming Air National Guard; First Officer Hudson was married and had spent 20 years in the US Marine Corp, and flight engineer Mr DeMorgan Jr was married with two children and had spent 18 years in the US Air Force as a flight engineer.
Owners of the Canada-based company and the men’s families and are expected to arrive in Sydney over the weekend.
“This will be deeply felt by all. We honour the amazing crews who do incredible things in dangerous circumstances supported by world-class operations,” Coulson Aviation said in a statement on Friday.
Mr Fitzsimmons labelled the C130 aircraft a “work horse of the air” which could carry 15,000 litres of water and integrate with firefighters on the ground.
A minute’s silence was held at RFS headquarters on Friday morning for the three fallen heroes as 32 Canadian and US crews returned home and another 40 arrived in Melbourne to fight fires in East Gippsland.
Alaska region fire management officer Chuck Russell, part of the US and Canadian contingent in NSW, said there was a “sombre” mood among the firefighters since the deaths of Mr McBeth, Mr Hudson and Mr DeMorgan.
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re a contractor, a Canadian, a New Zealander or an Australian, it hits hard when we lose one of our own,” he told reporters.
“We know what we do is inherently dangerous.”
Investigators from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau will travel to the Peak View crash site on Friday to start collecting evidence.
The bureau expects to complete preliminary findings within a month.
US ambassador Arthur Culvahouse said he was “deeply saddened” by the news.
“The brave Americans who died near Snowy Monaro died helping Australia in its time of need,” Mr Culvahouse said in a statement.
Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne paid tribute to the US firefighters and said she had passed on Australia’s condolences to Mr Culvahouse, while Prime Minister Scott Morrison had spoken with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
‘Darkest summer’ in NSW history
NSW Emergency Services Minister David Elliott has described the devastating bushfire season as the “darkest summer” in the state’s history.
Mr Elliott said he hoped the 2019-20 summer would never be repeated.
“I’m hoping we don’t have a repeat next year, or the year after or for the next 10 years, but the reality is, we probably will,” he told reporters on Friday.
NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said the state would “forever be indebted” to the sacrifice the three men made.
Police and Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigators will on Friday begin collecting evidence and piecing together what caused the C130 water tanker to crash in Peak View.
Mr Fitzsimmons said very hot, dry and windy conditions on Thursday resulted in flare ups, fire spread and new fire ignitions, as well as suspected home losses.
Meanwhile, six firefighters battling the Clyde Mountain blaze on NSW’s south coast were injured when their truck rolled near Moruya.
Three of them were kept in hospital on Thursday night for monitoring but none of the six firefighters’ injuries are considered serious.
Mr Fitzsimmons said fire conditions had significantly eased overnight and into Friday with an easterly wind change causing decreased temperatures, an increase in humidity, and rainfall across parts of the state.
He urged people to remain alert, with thousands of kilometres of fires still burning that crews needed to contain before dry conditions return.
“We’ve still got to get through the end of January, we’ve still got to get through February which is one of our months of summer and we still have to get through the end of the statutory bushfire danger period which might be extended should the circumstances dictate beyond March,” he said.
While the three-month weather outlook for NSW does include some rainfall, Mr Fitzsimmons said it wouldn’t be above average.
“We’re not getting any strong signals of above-average rainfall, drought-breaking rainfall or fire season-ending rainfall,” he said.
More than 70 fires continue to burn across NSW, with 30 uncontained.
The US firefighters and the three NSW firefighters who have died battling fires this season will be remembered in a state memorial service on February 23.
-with AAP
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