I just received the following email from my sister concerning my niece who is currently on an exchange as a Forest Ranger in USA and has been doing a lot of forest fire-fighting around the states.
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Clem has just phoned to say that she and a colleague have been selected to join a volunteer squad of trained firefighters to go to New York to act as a recovery and clearance unit to relieve the NY fire crews. She leaves at dawn tomorrow to drive to Mississippi to meet up with the others and then they set off in a convoy of trucks to drive to New York. She has no idea how long she will be there - she says she is a little nervous about dealing with the particularly ghastly cicumstances in which she will be working but very much wants to do it and is proud to have been chosen. It may even be that they are used for very mundane work away from the central site (I hope so!).
What can one say except what mothers always say, which is 'be careful'? Of course we will be worried about her but I have told her that if she finds it too much to handle there is no shame in walking away. But I'm pretty sure she won't, so I hope she is able to cope with it all in the longer term.
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I too hope she can cope both physically (she's only 5'3") and emotionally, but I'm glad someone I know can do something practical and worthwhile.
