Tahoe-based firefighter helps battle Australian wildfires

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    SACRAMENTO, CA (KCRA) — As wildfires sweep across Australia, ravaging wildlife, livelihoods and the countryside, firefighters battle the flames.

Hundreds of firefighters are from the U.S., like Dave Soldavini, who has been helping in Australia since Jan. 1.

“A number of the fires down here had blown up over New Year’s Eve and were threatening communities,” Soldavini said. “There were mass evacuations. The military was brought in. It was just pandemonium.”

Soldavini is one of dozens of firefighters from California. He works for the USDA Forest Service based out of the Tahoe Basin as an engine captain. Now, he is in Swifts Creek in eastern Victoria and spent his first week on the fire line. He said the orange glow from the flames is reminiscent of fighting wildfires at home.

“It reminded me of the Camp Fire, the Carr fire, the large Southern California fires where just devastation across the landscape,” he said. “And then here and there, that kind of a gem that you hold onto where somebody’s house was saved.”

Soldavini said it has been extremely heartwarming seeing rescued animals, like a baby kangaroo a man saved on the day he arrived in Australia.

“This gentleman came up and said, ‘Hey, I just rescued this little Joey. You want to hold it?’” he said. “And the efforts here to try and help all the animals are really, really impressive.”

In Soldavini’s nearly 30 years of service, this is his first time abroad to fight wildfires.

“The people here are incredibly nice and grateful. It’s been really emotional, to tell you the truth,” he said. “Those fires we’ve had in California are rough. And you carry that with you from year, to year, to year. And then to come here and have these people reach out to you and thanks, that they understand what we go through in California as well, it’s been incredibly rewarding, but very difficult.”

Soldavini said they are looking forward to more rain in the forecast, and he is now working at the incident command post, helping with overall planning and management of the wildfire. He is scheduled to come home to California at the end of the month.

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