Estonian firefighters recount extreme heat and backburning tactics during Sardinia deployment
Estonian rescuers who helped fight forest fires in Sardinia describe local firefighting methods and the challenge of working in extreme heat. They also took part in helicopter operations during the season's largest wildfire on the island.
Estonian rescuers who traveled to Sardinia to help battle forest and landscape fires have returned home with accounts of local firefighting tactics and unusually intense heat.
Sander Etverk, a rescuer from Tallinn's Nõmme station, said that just as the Estonian team arrived on the island, Sardinia's only firefighting aircraft took off — a plane that only flies during major fires. The area where the team was stationed had just seen the start of the season's largest blaze.
Kristian Kundrats, a rescuer from Tallinn's Lilleküla station, said the firefighting methods turned out to be surprisingly similar to those used in Estonia. Although the team had trained to work with hand tools, cutting fire lines and clearing burning material ahead of a blaze, in Sardinia they were able to use water and pump trucks instead.
Backburning tactics
According to Etverk, Italian crews rely heavily on backburning. Ahead of an advancing fire, a controlled strip of land is deliberately burned so that when the main fire reaches the already-burned area, it dies down on its own since there is nothing left to fuel it.
Helicopter operations
Each day, one rescuer from the Estonian team could spend a shift at the helicopter base and join flights when a new fire broke out. Two types of helicopters were used on the island: a smaller one with a three-person crew that drops 800 liters of water, and a larger one that drops off crew members to perform backburning before filling a four-ton water bag and releasing it in a single spot.
Etverk said the most dangerous part of the job was extinguishing fires directly beneath a helicopter — crews had only about 15 seconds to clear the area before the water came down. Constantly running back and forth in 45-degree heat made for an intense physical workout.
Such heat is unheard of in Estonia, making the deployment especially demanding — rescuers worked for hours drenched in sweat, drinking continuously from a three-liter water pouch built into their backpacks.
