A hoe, a chainsaw and 20 litres of water. This is how the elite troops fight fires

Fires are not put out with water alone. Those who risk their lives in them know the lesson by heart: each fire has its own identity, its own DNA. That is why putting out the flames takes more than water. You need to know the facts, guess where the fire is heading, put up barriers to its spread and weigh up the risks carefully. There are choices to be made, too. Hard choices. Being on the front line is almost a game of probabilities with lives at stake. A spectacle with no joy in it. A very real film.

And it is not only firefighters who fight the flames. Other professionals are called out. One such group is the forest sappers, flown to the fire front by helicopter. They are like the elite troops of firefighting. Left to their fate, tools in hand and heavy loads on their backs. They are split into teams of five, coordinated by a more experienced leader. They carry little more than 20 litres of water. They are dressed, from head to toe, in yellow and green. They cut control lines through the scrub to try to stop the fire advancing. Circumstances dictate the need: they are always prepared for the worst.