Estonian rescuers battle Sardinia fires with backburning and helicopters

Estonian rescuers deployed to fight forest and landscape fires on Sardinia used controlled backburning and helicopters, ERR reported. The most difficult challenge, Nomme rescue brigade member Sander Etverk told the television programme Ringvaade, was the extreme heat.

When the team arrived, a firefighting aircraft was taking off. Etverk said it was the island’s only such aircraft and was used only for large fires. The area where the Estonians were deployed had just seen the season’s largest fire begin.

The firefighting methods were partly similar to those used in Estonia. Lillekula rescue brigade member Kristian Kundrats said the team had expected to work with hand tools, but was able to use water and pump vehicles instead.

Italian crews also used controlled backburning. A designated team burned a strip of land ahead of the main fire so that, when the flames reached it, they would lose strength after the available fuel had been consumed.

Helicopters were used as well. One member of the Estonian team spent each day on duty at a helicopter base and could join the aircraft when a fire broke out.

According to Etverk, Sardinia used two types of helicopters. The smaller aircraft carried a three-person crew and dropped 800 litres of water. The larger helicopter transported firefighters to the area, who then carried out backburning. It could fill a container holding four tonnes of water and drop it over the fire.

Working beneath the larger helicopter was the most dangerous part of the operation. Separate team members watched for the aircraft and warned the others, who had about 15 seconds to move away before the water was released.

Etverk said firefighters sometimes had to run back and forth in temperatures of 45 degrees Celsius. During three-hour shifts, the team relied on three-litre drinking reservoirs attached to their backpacks.

Despite the conditions, he said the work felt similar to responding to a call in Estonia because the rescuers knew what to do and had trained for it.