“In doing so he has taken away from a massive fire suppression effort by over 1000 firefighters most of whom were volunteers doing their best,” Darlington, who lives in Jindabyne, told this masthead. Darlington wrote to Taylor on June 21, demanding he correct the record because the comments falsely implied firefighters deliberately stood by while the fires spread. Darlington said he had not heard back. In the letter, seen by this masthead, Darlington said Taylor’s account was “not correct” and ignored the realities confronting emergency
crews during one of the state’s worst bushfire campaigns. “I care about the people I worked with on these fires,” he wrote. “Those that heard or read the transcript of your words are furious that you have implied they just let these fires burn. It is a real kick in the guts to these firefighters.”
bushfire, firefighters, Taylor, transcript, Jindabyne, June 21, emergency crews, volunteers
So Taylor was basically saying they didn’t do anything?? Wild.
I didn’t even read the whole thing, but if those quotes made it sound like firefighters stood around, then yeah they should be pissed. Like, volunteers were out there freezing and tired. This sounds like one of those “edited for drama” situations.
Wait, is this about that transcript where they said the firefighters delayed on purpose? Or am I mixing it up with that other bushfire thing from last year. Either way Taylor shouldn’t be throwing around “deliberately” claims without knowing the whole response plan, because clearly things were chaos.
Apologize?? That seems like the only way these people learn nowadays. Also 1000 firefighters sounds made up like “from a movie,” but if it’s true then the transcript definitely shouldn’t have implied they were just letting it burn. My cousin in Jindabyne said it was all politics and radio silence and half the time nobody even knew what was happening, so I’m not surprised they’re furious.