Wildland firefighting

[Ivanturas]

I'm not quite sure this is the right genre to post, but it did seem to be the closest, as the work done in these pictures to protect nature.

I took these pictures during the Quilpue Wildfire, in the Valparaiso Region, Chile. As I'm part of the crew, I took pictures of the final stages only, since a lot of focus is required to fight fire "safely". There's other times when I'm not dispatched as a wildland firefighter, so I attend as just the camera guy (there's not many professional artists who are also trained to be on the fireline); it's during these situations that I can afford to shoot during the earlier stages (could post some of those pics if there's enough interest).

A6400, Sony E PZ 18-105 mm F4 G OSS at several different settings.

 

[Ivanturas]

I'm the short haired dude with the Peak Design clip on his hydration pack's strap.

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

Kind of reminds me of the type of action photography I remember seeing in National Geographic Magazine when I was a kid. Good Job!

 

[Ivanturas]

Thanks!

 

[Tim Mayo]

Amazing images Iván. You've certainly got a more difficult and dangerous job than I have! It must be hard seeing such devastation to homes and wildlife. I'm sure many people and animals are very grateful for your hard work! Thanks for sharing!!

 

[Ivanturas]

Kind of reminds me of the type of action photography I remember seeing in National Geographic Magazine when I was a kid. Good Job!

By the way! I remember those National Geographic magazines as well... you have no idea how great it felt when I read your comment!

Amazing images Iván. You've certainly got a more difficult and dangerous job than I have! It must be hard seeing such devastation to homes and wildlife. I'm sure many people and animals are very grateful for your hard work! Thanks for sharing!!

Thanks! This is kinda-sorta my job. I'm actually a filmmaker, but I began volunteering a couple years ago. Been training and fighting ever since, and also did some pro bono work for my brigade. That's when someone from Chile's national forestry service saw my work and called me in as "the film dude" for the season. So, while I'll be capturing mostly wildfires until March-April, I still do some non-wildland work, and still go to wildfires to do things other than getting images (as is the case here, where as you can see, I snapped pics only once the fire was mostly under control).

There are times, indeed when it becomes really tough. Sometimes, there's fire in places where crews just can't access. Aircrafts will do the job, but at least where I am, they can't fly during the night time. This has meant I've been forced to see from afar the fire overrunning an entire forest, zeroing in on some town, and knowing if we threw ourselves to fight it, we'd only make it worse by becoming victims. This last weekend though, the absolute opposite happened:

A few hours after we left, the fire re ignited on that spot. But it was entirely contained, couldn't spread beyond what you see... it never reached any homes, and that was because our work stopped it from spreading up there. We couldn't be prouder.

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

That's great!