Some of the state's 28 rappel firefighters train in the bush near Mount Buller. Credit:Jason South When it's time to go, a helipad must often be cleared in the scrub. But to get to those remote fires, she must first rappel from a helicopter, a descent that starts about 10 metres above the trees. ''It's really exciting. Because we get to work with the chopper, the majority of the time we get to go to the really remote places and tackle the fires before anyone gets to touch them. We get to fly around and see the fires, instead of walking in and not knowing what you're dealing with,'' she says, above the rising noise of a departing helicopter. ''It's definitely not for the faint-hearted; you've definitely got to have a little bit of kick about you. You've got to love it,'' she says. If Sally Reiners has a fair bit of ''kick'' about her, so too must her identical twin sister, Kerryanne - also a rappel firefighter - who has a special ''K'' on her helmet to distinguish her from Sally. One sister is in each of the two rappel crews based in the hamlet of Ovens near Bright. The sisters grew up on a farm at Corryong.

This summer will be Sally's fourth season as a rappel firefighter and her fifth as a Department of Environment and Primary Industries (DEPI) firefighter. When we meet her, she is training in the bush near Mount Buller, refreshing her skills via a series of rappels estimated at about 55 metres. One of Sally's colleagues in the seven-person ''Ovens B crew'' is 26-year-old Craig Wilson. Like Ms Reiners, he heads north when the Victorian fire season ends, although he heads a long way past the outback. Mr Wilson, a Canadian/Australian, spends six months of the year fighting fires in remote locations in Canada, where he is a ''smoke jumper'' in British Columbia. ''It's a smoke-jumping program out of Fort St John. We use fixed-wing aircraft instead of rotary, and we just parachute into the locations,'' he says above a crescendo of cicadas and helicopter noise. The globetrotting lifestyle ensures Mr Wilson and his Australian fiancee live a life that is free from winter chills. ''I enjoy going summer to summer,'' he says. While the work of a rappel firefighter is exciting, ''it's not like an adventure sport'', he says. ''It does give you a bit of a rush, but it's not all about the rush. To me, what's appealing is that you get paid to do something that's challenging, that maybe not everybody would be up to doing … It's not like bungee-jumping.''

Victoria has had a rappel firefighting force for more than 30 years - longer than the age of most of the state's 28 rappel firefighters. At 23, Sally Reiners is the youngest in her crew, five of whom are in their 20s. The oldest is 46-year-old crew leader Tony Grey. DEPI's manager of aviation training and safety, Bryan Rees, says the department has four rappel crews, two based in Ovens and two in Heyfield. Many of the fires they fight are ignited by lightning in remote country, he says. ''Accessing these fires using the helicopter and rappel crews allows us to get these firefighters in to do aggressive initial attacks on these fires when they're small.''