Alice trees

Alisa Peleshenko could continue to play sports or become a successful government official, but instead has been extinguishing forest fires for three years

We help Greenpeace: the fight against forest fires collected 1 199 201 r needs 1 198,780 r

The collection of funds is over

“It all started with trees, probably,” says Alice. -I generally love nature, I love animals and really wanted to do something good for them. Previously, there was not a lot of eco-active in Krasnodar, and the only thing I found was the Ecological Watch group, they raised and planted trees. I went with them, and together we planted these trees - hundreds of seedlings for four volunteers. Now I know, of course, that the work of trees does not end with the landing of trees - the seedlings must be carefully monitored, this is a lot of work. Then I did not have such thoughts, there was only admiration for the fact that you can just take and plant the forest like that.

So I met Maxim Rebechenko, one of the volunteers of the “voluntary firefighters of the Kuban”. He told me that Greenpeace is organizing in the Kuban, under the Priazovsky reserve, a camp where they will conduct trainings for firefighters. At that time, I did not know anything about fires at all, but I heard a lot about the Greenpeace. I went, in fact, to look at them - at people from Grinis. They seemed to me some incredible. I have not seen such interaction anywhere - how they relate to the common cause and each other, how they support and help! I immediately want to go for them. ”

For yourself or for all

Twelve years ago, Alice arrived in Krasnodar from her native Crimean - play volleyball for Dynamo. She studied at the Institute of Physical Culture, was a candidate for master of sports, participated in home and field competitions, and worked as an athlete-instructor. And she left when they offered a contract in Moscow. Not to Moscow - nowhere.

Alice extinguishes grass on the side of the photo: Alina Tapetnichenko

- Why did you leave sports? I ask Alice.

“Sport is for myself,” she shrugs. - Medals there, competition. It was necessary to go on a contract to Moscow, to develop further. And as I had cut off - I do not want anymore. I have never regretted. I did not immediately, of course, came to the "voluntary firefighters of the Kuban." She worked in government agencies, but there is even less sense than in sports.

And my arrival in firefighters took place gradually. But finally, of course, after a meeting with Greenpeis. After all, why, then, in 2016, they arrived-here, in the same place, floodplains, Chernov fluids in the Primorsko-Akhtarsky district burn in the same place.

They gave me the equipment, explained what to do, and I went to extinguish with the rest. It was incredibly difficult to go to meet the five -meter wall of the fire along the puffing fervor layer of peat, which was formed from the many years of humus. Sneped soil does not cool at all, even the shoes with the oil -bearing sole do not save, there is nowhere to retreat from the estuary, and the guys continue to extinguish, although they only have twenty -line backpacks of water against the fire.

Alexander Bront, Maxim Rebechenko and Alisa Pleshenko check the walkie -talkie after extinguishing the fire photo: Alina Pratnitnichenko

Before my eyes, ten people extinguished the fire for nineteen hours. You never know how long you have to extinguish: because the reed, which depends on the weather, was burning in the other direction, and here are hundreds of hectares of fire.

But at first I soon helped, not extinguished. It was the hardest thing to see how more experienced firefighters cope with fire, and I can too little so that the help was significant. Although they would not have been given to me to break into battle - Greenpis has a principle by which you cannot harm yourself.

Who looks where

Most often, volunteers are asked why they are needed at all. The second most frequency question - "Where does the state look?" Voluntary firefighters patiently explain that the Ministry of Emergencies and similar large state structures have other responsibilities.

Alexander Bronte and Alisa Peleshenko Photo: Alina Tapetnichenko

“The Ministry of Emergencies extinguishes settlements,” Alice explains. - Aviation -guard - Forest. But there are territories that are like a forest, but according to documents - not a forest, and in the end no one is responsible for them. The same reeds. They are, they are burning. And there is also a feature - the Ministry of Emergencies extinguish where you can drive. And we extinguish where we can pass without making differences - bumps there, estuary, reed. The need for voluntary firefighters is recognized by everything, there are even orders at the federal level that they should be in each village. But no one wants to be in firefighters, so the heads of settlements form lists from friends and relatives. And on paper we have many thousands of trained firefighters, but in fact ... In fact, we are eight people in the Krasnodar Territory.

The Ministry of Emergencies generally has a complex system. The ten -day fire that we extinguished this summer did not mention their reports anywhere. They only wrote that there was a fire of such and such a number. And that this is the same territory for ten days in a row is burning out - not a word. ”

Alice and other firefighters go to the next hearth photo: Alina Tapetnichenko

- When is it most often burning here? In summer?

- At the same time, it is burning as in past years, in eighty percent of cases. The remaining twenty percent are new places. Previously, the reeds were burning more in the Kuban, and now the forests. There were three days of holidays in the fall, and the forest caught fire in the Seversky district.

- Why? Are there any natural reasons?

- Natural? Well, the eruption of the volcano, the fall of the meteorite and the dry thunderstorm - that’s all the natural reasons. Neither one nor the other nor the third in the Kuban. True, we are sometimes told about some plant that allegedly emits essential oils, but if there is no spark that someone brought, even such a plant cannot self-load.

Our causes of fires are all from people. The reed prevents the inhabitants of the mouth of cows or get to the estuary for fishing. And in other regions, too - our guys went to the Amur Region last year, help colleagues, and returned in a very depressed state. Because everything burned there, and the locals continued to burn the grass at the house. Adults, especially in rural areas, are difficult to retrain. They say: "They burned grass all their lives, and now what, because of you to stop?" Therefore, we put a lot of efforts into work with children. They then affect parents. They say, for example: "Dad, let's not burn the grass, but it is better to make a compost pile."

After extinguishing a fire photo: Alina Tapetnichenko

For children, we conduct different games - both board and active, where you need to use knowledge. All this is the direction of the work of Greenpis “ for children - about natural fires” , there are different formats. There are cartoons - with fixes and mixes, and leaflets, and manual for adults working with children. And for adults-another program, two or three days of theory, and then practice-training fires. No, nothing burns on them - we use smoke bombs and ribbons to simulate fire. And we themselves act as the statists.

Alice crosses his hands with colored baubles on her wrists - they symbolize for her a commonality with other people - and says, smiling: “ I dream that people have a change in the idea of ​​the norm. A difficult attitude towards us, some volunteers are even silent at home about what they are doing because they are not understood ... They say to us: “What the hell are you performing the functions of the state, because of you it works through the sleeves.” But how to sit and wait until someone does something for you?

After extinguishing a fire photo: Alina Tapetnichenko

I want people to see their house in nature. They said not only “here is my car” and “my apartment”, but “my trees”, “my forest”, “my land”. ”

Every year, experienced volunteers and those who are just going to become firefighters come to the Grinis camp. People undergo training and retraining, studying safety and teamwork, leaving home - to the Kuban or Siberia - and extinguish forests and fields that there is no one else to extinguish, because formally they do not belong to the settlements or the lands of forestry, which means that no one is responsible for them.

Volunteer firefighters need equipment: forest fire extinguishers, walkie -talkies, sprayers, motorcies. And our support with you. A small monthly donation - 100, 200 rubles, any amount - will continue to train volunteers, prepare training materials, tell adults and children how to prevent a fire.

And protect our forests with you from fire.