The NSW Rural Fire Service has released a series of videos showing some of their aircraft in action at the Wuuluman fire in recent days.
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The fire which has burned more than 2730 hectares, is located between Wellington and Mudgee to the west of the Cudgegong River.
Because of the rugged terrain the blaze is burning in, aircraft have played an important role in the fire’s containment.
On Sunday night the RFS broke new ground when they used helicopters through the night to spot any potential flare-ups.
On their Facebook page, RFS Orana confirmed the strategy had paid off.
“The use of a helicopter last night to monitor the fire was a great success in which it identified hot spots which would not normally been seen and helped guide firefighters to find them and put them out,” a statement said.
Another first for the RFS has been the use of such a variety of aircraft.
The large air tanker “Thor” was joined by the very large air tanker “Southern Belle” and the air crane “Elise” with smaller fixed wing craft and helicopters using buckets.
The smaller and more mobile craft have been able to use Burrendong Dam to refill on the run.
“Having three fixed wing Fire Bosses capable of scooping water from a water body which limits the downtime before refilling is another milestone in aviation fire fighting,” NSW RFS incident controller Superintendent David Hoadley said.
“When you include the air crane Elise for continued water bombing, “thor” and “southern Belle” which have dropped retardant – it’s a pretty impressive group.”
