"At the same time as we arrived in Sardinia, the island's only firefighting aircraft took off, and it only goes up when there is a major fire. That was the introduction to our arrival. In the area where we were placed, the biggest fire of the season had just begun," Etverk said.

"Firefighting in Italy was relatively similar to Estonia, which was surprising, because we were prepared to work with hand tools. We had been trained to create a fire line before the fire, remove burning material, but there we were surprised to be able to use water and pump trucks, it felt familiar," explained Kristian Kundrats, a rescuer from the Tallinn's Lilleküla station.

According to Etverk, Italy used backburning. "They burn the land ahead of the fire so that when the fire becomes too large to stop, one team deals specifically with backburning. They ignite a controlled strip, and when the main fire reaches it, it dies down on its own because everything ahead has already burned," Etverk explained.

Helicopters were also used to fight the fire. "Every day one rescuer from our team could spend their shift at the helicopter base. When a fire occurred, they could fly along. It was a very interesting experience to bring back to Estonia," Kundrats noted.

There are two types of helicopters in Sardinia.

"The smaller helicopter has a three‑person crew and drops 800 liters of water. The larger helicopter has a crew that it drops off to perform backburning. The helicopter then flies a bit away, fills a large bag with water — it holds four tons — which basically falls in one spot, even though in videos it looks like the water is sprayed around. Being underneath and extinguishing the fire at the same time is the most dangerous part, and we had separate people watching for the helicopter. You had 15 seconds and then you ran quickly out from under the fire because the water was coming down," Etverk described. "Running back and forth constantly in 45‑degree heat, because the helicopter came very often, is quite a workout."

According to Etverk, doing the firefighting work still felt similar to responding to a call in Estonia. "When you're working, it doesn't feel terrible or frightening, you know what to do, you're trained for it, and you just do it. In Estonia, of course, there is no such heat as in Sardinia. You work three hours with sweat pouring off you. The backpack had a three‑liter pouch with a drinking tube, and sometimes the tube was constantly in your mouth and you drank as much water as you possibly could," Etverk said.

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