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Kiwi FireFighting

Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 5:56 pm
by SamW
I got back from New Zealand the other day after spending 3 weeks there, here are some photos you might like :)

The following 5 photos were taken at a fire just out of Queenstown. This fire burnt for at least 4 days and required 9 helitacks to put it out. The terrain here is very very steep so getting trucks into the areas is impossible.
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We also went to the Warbirds over Wanaka air show, one of the best in the world. They also had a few vintage fire trucks on display, but most were still covered up when I was there. I also managed to take 320 photos of airplanes.

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They also had a fire crew on duty in case a plane crashed or anything else. I don't think they had any incidents, but they did have a BBQ set up all day on the back of their truck.

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During the airshow, they had mock dog fights, and mock airfield attack, aswell as a P-40 Kittyhawk with 6 working 0.5inch Browning Machine guns shooting something. Here is a photo during the air field attack. They did not actually drop bombs, but had explosives set up on the other side of the runway, and a fake submarine they had to destroy. They had the explosives set up in the dry grass paddock and of course started a small grass fire that they put out with fire extinguishers.

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and here is a photo of a police car that was parked up at a minor car accident that we passed.

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Also while I was there, there was a very bad factory fire that killed one fire fighter and injured others.
http://news.google.com.au/news?hl=en&ta ... earch+News

And one last thing, they are very active in fire prevention over there, with lots of TV adds on how you can prevent fires in your home, like, move everything at least 1.5m away from your heaters, and other simple things like that. Also I heard that one shire council sent every house hold a smoke alarm one year and a small fire extinguisher another year. A great idea.

Sam

Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 6:35 pm
by Helitak_670
Nice pics, thanks for sharing, I don't think that the first chopper has a long enough sling!

Only 300 odd photos of Planes, far out musnt have been much going on. As for the P40 he would be shooting blanks, however I doubt that they would be active.

Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 6:59 pm
by SamW
A few more pics...
This is one of the water buckets that they use.
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An Australian F111, watch that money burn!

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And a photo of a WW2 Corsair, because everyone likes planes.

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Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 8:56 pm
by wasaint
Nice Work !!!

Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 10:55 pm
by WPXZBP
Great pics!

NZ was one of only a handful of nations that used the Corsair (USA and UK were the others) during WW2.

Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 10:57 pm
by Tyranus
Agreed Sam, they're some great shots there! Looks like you had a blast!

Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 11:16 pm
by Lucas_arts_182
Helitak_670 wrote:I don't think that the first chopper has a long enough sling!

Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 7:34 am
by Always RX
Cool pics Sam, thanks for sharing :D