Parksville's Kevin Cochrane is one of seven BC fire professionals to join a 22-person Canadian contingent helping Australia's hazardous bush fire situation (Canadian Press)

By Alex Rawnsley

BUSH FIRE SUPPORT

Parksville man flies to Australia to fight raging bush fires

Dec 4, 2019 | 6:26 AM

PARKSVILLE — A local man is one of 22 Canadians in Australia helping to fight devastating bush fires.

Kevin Cochrane, a long-time resident of Parksville and aviation expert with the Coastal Fire Centre is one of seven B.C. firefighters taking up management and supervisory roles with crews on the front lines.

“We’ll be helping coordinate all the aviation management requests that are required for the fire and help facilitate the operations to make things run smoothly,” Cochrane told NanaimoNewsNOW before he left.

The normal Australian bush fire season is off to a raging start with little rain and heavy winds. As of Wednesday, Dec. 4 there are more than 120 fires burning with up to 72 of them uncontained.

“There’s a lot of fire down there, it’s very dry and conditions are pretty severe.”

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Cochrane is a 30-year firefighting veteran. He initially served in northern British Columbia before relocating back home to Parksville.

He’s been with the Coastal Fire Centre for seven years and said he’s seen roughly a dozen larger incidents over the recent busy fire seasons.

The 38-day deployment means Cochrane will miss Christmas and New Years with his family, but he said everyone was supportive of him going to Australia.

“Like us in the past when we get overwhelmed with fire…knowing what it’s going to mean to go over to Australia and give them a hand made it an easy decision.”

The 22-person Canadian crew will join over 1,100 Australian firefighters currently working to suppress blazes in the eastern states of Queensland and New South Wales.

They are due back in Canada on Jan. 10, 2020.

alex.rawnsley@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alexrawnsley