Date Time Picton Rural Fire Service gets a makeover “Our helmets were melting, our masks were melting, and some nights we just saw red as far as the eye could see.” That’s the way one New South Wales volunteer firefighter, Gareth Jamieson, described the unprecedented and unpredictable 2019/2020 bushfires. Based in Picton’s Rural Fire Service, Mr Jamieson was on the front line battling the devastating Green Wattle Creek blaze that burned from November 2019 to January 2020 and destroyed more than 275,000 hectares of land. Together with his fellow firefighters, Mr Jamieson fought the fire for more than 700 hours, often going days without sleeping.