“SUFFOCATINGLY beautiful” is how firefighter of 28 years Matt Dutkiewicz remembers the black summer bushfires.

The ACT Rural Fire Service (ACTRFS) volunteer says that throughout the devastating fire season of 2019/20, there were five times while battling blazes on the front line he thought he might not make it out alive.

“It was one of the scariest times in my career, I’ve never seen anything like it,” says Mr Dutkiewicz.

“I remember at six o’clock in the evening in Nerriga it was suffocatingly dark. In some ways it’s almost beautiful.

“Your body is just telling you to get the hell out of there, but your job is to be there to help keep people safe.”

Matt is just one of hundreds of Canberra firefighters who were stationed throughout the eastern seaboard during the cataclysmic fire season.

While it’s now been almost three years since the fires devastated the country, he says the chance for firefighters to reflect on their experiences and tell their stories was stolen away by the pandemic lockdowns.

But a new book has sought to change that.

“Ablaze: The Long Hot Summer of 2019-20” chronologically orders a series of stunning and terrifying photographs of the black summer fires. Many are taken by ACT firefighters who were on the front line battling the blazes.

Matt, one of the book’s editors, says that when they put the call out for photos and stories they received more than 5000 responses.

“We initially thought this book was going to be a few months’ journey, but by the time we ordered all the photos chronologically it turned out to be around an 18-month-long process,” he says.

“We tried to include at least one photo from each contributor. We also had many reach out with written stories of what they experienced there on the ground.”

Matt says part of moving on from the traumatic situations that firefighters found themselves in is sharing those experiences.

“One of the things firefighters think about when they look back on the fires, is ‘what could I have done differently?’” he says.

“To be able to see these situations from different perspectives, for many lets them realise, ‘I did do the best that I could in that moment’.

“It’s a chance to show your family, your friends, your boss who gave you time off work what you went through.”

From the fires around the ACT to those right up in Queensland, hundreds of ACTRFS volunteers risked their lives to protect lives and property. Mr Dutkieiwicz says it was like nothing they’d ever seen before.

“What we were seeing was a lot of pyrocumulous activity. This is where the fires are so intense that they create their own weather,” he says.

“The heat rises so qucikly you get these huge pyrocumulous clouds of smoke developing in the atmosphere. When that happens you get really severe fire conditions and we were seeing that happen by three o’clock every afternoon.

“The photos in the book are a way to capture the enormity of it, and spectacular things we saw despite how tragic it was.”

Feeding after the frenzy… ACTRFS and NSWFRS fire crews take a quick meal break inside the Nerriga Pub a few hours after the firestorm had passed through the township on December 21, 2019. Photo: Gary Hooker

Four ACTRFS and NSWRFS crew members inspect the devastating effects of drought on a farm near Ebor in northern NSW in mid-September, 2019. The region experienced extreme bushfires. Photo: Gary Hooker

Holding the fire… a crew member from the ACTRFS Guises Creek Brigade during a night back burn along Corin Road, near Gibraltar Falls, ACT on February 5, 2020. Photo: Gary Hooker

Day turns into night… ACTRFS crews wait for an impending firestorm outside in Nerriga, NSW. The photo was taken during daylight at 17.40pm on December 21, 2019. Photo: Gary Hooker.

Mr Dutkieiwicz says that while on the fireground, many firefighters would use their mobile phones to take pictures of their surroundings while they anxiously waited for their situations to evolve.

“This book is unique in that we managed to track the fires right down the seaboard and part of that storytelling is trying to help explain to friends and family what it’s actually like to be out in the fireground,” he says.

“Today most people have mobile phones so it’s easier for people to take photos, but having ACT crews spread all across Australia taking these photos was a story in its own right.”

All ACTRFS volunteer members who were active with their brigades during the bushfire season received a complimentary edition of the book when it was launched late last year. Proceeds go towards the ACT Volunteer Brigades Association, a not-for-profit organisation run by volunteer firefighters for volunteer firefighters.

The book is dedicated to Anthony “TK” Summers Kidney, Michael “Mike” Hubert GA McColl and Arthur Colin Sayer, three veteran Canberra firefighters who lost their lives during the black summer fires.

Mr Dutkiewicz, who in June was awarded the 2022 Australian Fire Service Medal as part of the Queen’s Birthday Honours alongside fellow ACTRFS volunteer Greg Potts, says that to be able to tell these stories is an important path on the road to recovery.

“Those out there fighting the fires, they had lots of time to think about it themselves, but when they started sharing those thoughts with others, when those experiences are in a photo, I think it really helped to solidify or reinforce at the time they’ve done the right thing,” he says.

“To hear those conversations that were happening, to have those conversations, it’s healing.”

Get the book at actvolunteerbrigadesassociation.com