Australia Burns Again, and Now Its Biggest City Is Choking - New York Times

Prime Minister Scott Morrison rejects calls for more bushfire help, saying volunteer firefighters 'want to be there' The prime minister disagrees the federal government could do more as ‘nationally coordinated effort’ is in place
The prime minister has rejected calls for more help for firefighters as the New South Wales bushfire crisis is expected to worsen.

There were 85 fires burning across NSW on Tuesday, and 42 were uncontrolled. With predictions of temperatures surpassing 40C and a wind change for the afternoon, firefighters expected conditions to deteriorate.

About 2,700 firefighters are in the field, many from volunteer NSW Rural Fire Service brigades.

As smoke brought the city’s air quality to more than 11 times the hazardous level, Scott Morrison spoke in Sydney about the religious discrimination bill.
Asked about concerns over how long the tens of thousands of volunteer firefighters – many who have been away from work for weeks now – were expected to continue without pay, Morrison said they “want to be there”.

“These fires have been going on for some months now and when I was speaking with the commissioner on the weekend out where we have the megafire at the moment we were talking through the crew rotations,” he said.

“And the fact is these crews, yes, they’re tired, but they also want to be out there defending their communities. And so we do all we can to rotate the shifts to give them those breaks but … in many cases you’ve got to hold them back to make sure they get that rest. And I thank them all for what they’re doing, particularly all those who support them.”

He rejected suggestions that volunteer firefighters – who reportedly make up the largest volunteer firefighting force in the world – should be professionalised

“The volunteer effort is a big part of our natural disaster response and it is a big part of how Australia has always dealt with these issues,” Morrison said.

“We are constantly looking at ways to better facilitate the volunteer effort, but to professionalise that at that scale is not a matter that has previously been accepted and it’s not currently under consideration by the government.”

There are reports of RFS brigades crowdfunding or seeking donations for water and food for those in the field.

Read on if you feel so inclined. I was listening to a volunteer today, who had put in a 10 hour overnight shift fighting fires (not his first such shift), had 2 hours sleep then went to his office, he's a small businessman & needs his income.

The Bawley Point Rural Fire Brigade & another village brigade (Kiola) set up a crowd funding page wanting $5000 & got $45,000.