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2019 was Australia’s hottest and driest on record,
and the resulting fires all but exhausted the men
and women constantly called to battle them. Peter
Holding, 66, who has been a volunteer firefighter
for 43 years, says he’s never seen anything as severe
as last summer’s bushfire season—a devastating
period now known as the Black Summer. “There’s
going to have to be some very serious effort put into
reducing emissions if we’re going to stop this from
getting any worse,” he says.
Still, as Australia’s fire season intensifies in
late 2020, its volunteer firefighters are preparing
to do battle again. “It’s about the impact we
have on the community and the people we help,”
Summerscales says. “It’s that feeling that you
made a difference.” □Firefighters on
the outskirts
of Bredbo, New
South Wales,
Australia, on
Feb. 1