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SYDNEY, Dec. 24-- Christmas will provide little respite for many firefighters in Australia this year, with plans instead to take full advantage of favourable weather conditions to help fight monster blazes. While traditionally Christmas is a day spent with family, roughly 2,000 members of the volunteer-based New South Wales Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS), will instead continue to defend lives and homes across the state. One of those volunteering to leave her family for the smoke and heat of the fire grounds is Captain of Wamberal Rural Fire Brigade Angela Burford, who also works as a media officer with the RFS. "In my brigade there's four of us, including myself who have put our hand up to go out on the truck tomorrow to do this very important work," Burford told Xinhua on Tuesday. Joining Burford on the truck will be a postal worker, construction foreman and a university student, all of whom are also part-time volunteer firefighters. While it is difficult sacrificing time with family, Burford said that herself and her crew recognise the vital importance of the work they are doing, and the need to take advantage of favourable weather conditions where possible. "While we are missing out on Christmas Day with our families, that's the commitment that we make wherever we can to try and protect communities," she said. Burford and her team will travel south from their brigade on the Central Coast, to the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, where in the past week alone an estimated 100 homes have been lost. | 
