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本帖最后由 漠西哥2014 于 2020-6-29 07:27 编辑
原文如下
NSW koala sanctuary's touching tribute to US pilots killed saving it from devastating bushfires
The New South Wales owner of a koala sanctuary that almost burned down in Australia's deadly bushfires earlier this year has revealed a touching tribute to three pilots who died defending his property.
American pilots Ian McBeth, Paul Hudson and Rick DeMorgan died in one of the most heartbreaking days of Australia's fierce summer, when their air tanker helicopter crashed near Cooma, south of Canberra, while battling the blazes.
At the time of the tragedy, James Fitzgerald's Two Thumbs Wildlife Trust sanctuary had been under threat from the flames.
They actually dropped retardant on my sanctuary and then crashed into the ground," Mr Fitzgerald told 9News.
"It's a huge tragedy for the families.
"Having people in that plane die was very difficult because you can't fix it – you'd like to fix it, but you can't."
Six months on from the three pilots' deaths, Mr Fitzgerald has unveiled a tribute to the men who saved his sanctuary – naming three surviving koalas after them.
"If you've had a member of your family go to the other side of the world and died helping people, if those people don't recognise it, they've kind of died in vain in a way," Mr Fitzgerald said.
"We're making sure we say we're going to remember them."
The sanctuary owner also donated $100,000 in the pilots' names to koala research being conducted through the Australian National University.
The study, conducted on his property, aims to work out what more humans can do to help koala populations after future bushfires.
We've got some koalas with GPS collars, some resident koalas. We're following the movements of those koalas and seeing how they move about in the burnt landscape," Dr Karen Ford, a research fellow at ANU, told 9News.
This work comes after Mr Fitzgerald spent the days after his own home burned to the ground rescuing injured koalas from the scorched landscape, with the help of wildlife volunteers.
"It was extremely emotional. There was no noise, there were no birds, nothing, not even insects," Emily Steindl from the Animal Rescue Cooperative group said.
Drones with thermal imaging cameras were also used to pinpoint starving and injured koalas in the firezone.
Ten of the survivors found are now living at Mr Fitzgerald's sanctuary, and the pilots' families have maintained an interest in the koalas named after them.
Meanwhile, he says the tragedy is never far from his mind. "I have days where I feel like crying all day. It doesn't happen that often, but it does," Mr Fitzgerald said.
"The families of the pilots – the wives and children – came and met these koalas, they fairly regularly write to me asking for photos and updates."
https://www.9news.com.au/nationa ... a-b865-35fc469c2090
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