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It's hard to fully understand some things in life unless you experience them first hand. Following February's devastating Black Saturday bushfires, Victoria and, in fact the entire country, is on bushfire alert for the coming summer.
The fear of fire breaking out somewhere close to Echuca-Moama became real on Saturday night when the editor phoned me and said a bushfire had broken out in Moira Forest, about 6km east of Mathoura.
I wasn't 100 per cent sure what I'd be in for when she told me I'd be required to cover it for Monday's paper.
After recently completing my media fire accreditation, I left the office on Sunday morning with my note pad, camera, bright orange fire suit, helmet and boots and headed towards the fire zone.
Driving up the Cobb Hwy only a couple of kilometres out of Moama, the billows of smoke from the area was clearly visible.
It was then I realised this was serious stuff.
After arriving in Mathoura and driving down Picnic Point Rd, a further indicator of the fires were smoke warning signs on the roadside.
After getting directions through the bush from a NSW Rural Fire Service member, I followed the freshly-graded bush track through thick bush _ the smoke becoming thicker and visibility worsening as I got closer to the main front.
Shortly after arriving and donning the overalls, boots and helmet, I joined NSW Rural Fire Service group officer Bill Berryman and deputy group officer Brendan Casey, who took me in and around the fire, which covered almost 300 hectares of Moira Forest.
As skidders and bulldozers carved containment lines around us and cleared away scrub, the severity of the fire was clear.
With the mercury tipping about 36C, the wind picked up in the early afternoon and caused a fire burning in the western corner to flare and jump containment lines.
Driving through the fires, the heat radiating through the ute's windows was amazing.
They were the conditions Forest NSW fire crews and volunteer firefighters had contended with from the previous day and kept facing until the fire was brought under control during the week.
And it wasn't the first such fire they had faced this season.
All while this was happening, Bill and Brendan stayed cool, calm and collected, assigned crews to different tasks throughout the affected areas and were more than happy to answer my questions, educate me on what was going on and take me to areas of the fire to get photos.
Not just Bill and Brendan, but every single fire fighter does an amazing job and my appreciation for their work increased 100-fold on Sunday.
