Lessons learnt while filming bushfiresBy Richard MoranIn January 2003, severe fires hit Canberra, killing four people and destroying over 500 homes. National Nine News cameraman Richard Moran was at the scene with the firefighters, filming the mass devastation and saving the stranded. His coverage won him a prestigious Gold Walkley Award for Excellence in Journalism. Here he recounts his lessons learned in his career while filming bushfires.
The pilot of the single engine Cessna looked like he was talking into his lunch bag, at around 5000 feet over a bushfire near Bendigo, Victoria, when it dawned on me he was actually being physically ill. It was one of those "why am I here?" moments.
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Richard Moran's incredible footage of the Canberra bushfiresI have been shooting news for more than 20 years and like most in the news industry have been involved in the coverage of bushfires. Lessons learned on the job were invaluable for a keen young cameraman.
A young bloke turns up at a large grass fire and ventures out on foot into the long dry grass to get a little closer to the action. This looks alright, he thinks, and heads over a barbed wire fence into a paddock full of long grass and thistles. This is done in an effort to get closer to fire fighters on trucks, who must be wondering why he would be out in that paddock with a camera and not a fire hose. A quick wind change and he realises this fire has changed direction and he has a bit of ground to cover to get back to the safety of the sealed roadway and his news car. The awkward dash with the camera gear is going well until he gets to that fence and the fire is licking at his boots. Luckily a fire crew has been watching and is not far behind. A quick thinking hoseman on the tanker starts to give him and the area around him a quick splash down. He stands at the fence like a dog getting a wash, knowing he needs it, but doesn't really want it. The fire truck leaves for another fire and he's sure he can hear them laughing over the sound of the engine and sirens.
Lesson learnt: stay close to those who know what they're doing.A few fire seasons later, on a hot and windy Boxing Day, the same young bloke and a journalist drive to an area where a major bushfire has just been. He parks the news car on a narrow bush track along with some other cars (volunteer fire fighters, as it turns out) and starts to take pictures of fire units off in the distance battling to save a farmhouse as other buildings around it burn. The fire seems to be moving off and more fire units are passing by to get to the fire front. As it's late afternoon, the decision is made to get a tape back the station via a colleague in another car so at least some vision will get to air on the six o'clock bulletin.
As his colleagues take in the view, standing alongside the cars, he notices a second flare up down the road that is making its way towards them. This flare up is moving and growing in size faster than it takes him to get back the 50 or so metres he had walked away from the cars. Yelling out to the others to get into the cars, he struggles with the camera equipment, but starts to realise it might be too late. Leaving his tripod on the side of the road, he makes his way to the passenger seat as the journalist has done the smart thing and jumped into the driver's seat. The smoke and fumes and heat are almost overwhelming as he jumps inside. Visibility at this stage is zero, smoke and ash are all that is to be seen through the windows. They decide to reverse up the track and hopefully out of the fire. This was not, on reflection, the smartest thing to do considering how many fire trucks were in the area. The chances of hitting something or being hit by something were very high. However, that didn't happen and some minutes later they were out of trouble and filming again. This time there were five or so vehicles on fire some 200 metres down the track. The tripod was run over and destroyed by a fire truck and the news car had some paint damage. Crew shaken up a bit, but otherwise okay.
Lesson learnt: it isn't over till it's over.Things have changed these days, as I know that in New South Wales the fire departments carry out training that includes briefing sessions and distribution of safety equipment and ID cards so media who want to get close up and personal have a better idea on how not to get into and how to get out of a bad fire situation. From a television point of view, this means that the pictures are even more graphic, as cameras are usually side by side with fire fighters as they fight the most intense blazes.
January 18, 2003, was one of those days when you step outside and the hot wind smacks you in the face. Geoff (Niffty) Carroll and I, both based out of the Nine Network bureau at Parliament House in Canberra, went out that morning to shoot fires that had been burning outside the city for some weeks. After a couple of hours filming fire fighters and farmers protecting rural property on the far outskirts of Canberra, we decided to make our way back towards the outer suburbs. After a few detours, we found ourselves on the edge of the city in an area called Duffy. This is a suburb lined by a pine plantation on one side and rows of houses on the other. There were a few fire trucks and police cars starting to block roads as they realised that the fire was heading into that area. I got a hint of what was about to happen when I overheard a policeman who was turning a motorist away say to them that the Fire Department was getting in place for their "last stand". Looking around, we managed to find a fire officer and after listening to him on his radio for a few minutes, we knew that as far as a news camera crew was concerned, we were in the right place.
Thirty minutes later, as fire fighters sprayed water on nearby houses in an effort to ease the impact, the afternoon sky turned to black as the fire hit the pine plantations. I was lucky enough to meet up with ACT Fire Officer Thornthwaite. It's hard to describe the next hours. While in his vehicle we saw the full brunt of the fire front hit the suburbs. Even fire fighters were evacuated from a burning fire truck into the four-wheel drive we were in. At one stage I had to get out of the vehicle to let a fireman out and the soles of my boots melted on the roadway. It seemed everything in that street, houses, cars and trees, was on fire.
As the worst of the front seemed to have passed and houses continued to burn, the people who had stayed with their homes started to come out. As we drove along we noticed an elderly bloke with a saucepan in his hand. We pulled up and he came straight to the door, so we pulled him inside. I can remember looking at his face and body covered in soot and ash. I can only guess that the saucepan was for throwing water.
Four people died and more than 500 homes were burnt. It's a day that I'm sure anyone involved with will remember for the rest of their lives. I must say that the fire fighters on that day, and I know every fire season, gave everything they had to protect life and property. Some are paid but many are volunteers.
But just to finish the Cessna over the fire story … after the pilot returned his lunch to the lunch bag, he passed it to me and I truly shared the moment with him.
I didn't take one piece of usable vision on that flight.
Lesson learnt: in news, you never know what's going to come up.Source:
NineMSN
