NZ Firefighters To Assist State Of Victoria

NATIONAL RURAL FIRE AUTHORITY

NZ Firefighters To Assist State Of Victoria

3 March, 2009

The Department of Sustainability and Environment in Victoria, Australia has made a second formal request to the National Rural Fire Authority for support from New Zealand to assist with management of a number of large uncontained wildfires in State lands of Victoria says New Zealand’s National Rural Fire Officer, Murray Dudfield.

A team of 57 fire fighters, crew leaders and Incident Management Team members from the following organisations across New Zealand will meet and leave from Auckland mid afternoon Wednesday [4th] aboard a New Zealand Defence Force aircraft: The following agencies have released staff for this Australian wildfire deployment:

Rural Fire Management Personnel

Paul Baker - National Rural Fire Authority [Napier]
John Sutton - Department of Conservation Bay of Plenty [Rotorua]
Nick McCabe - Waimea Rural Fire District [Nelson]
Bruce Janes – Department of Conservation Canterbury [Christchurch]
Bryan Cartelle – Manukau City Council [Manukau]
Malcolm Smith – Department of Conservation East Coast [Wairoa]
Ray Bellringer – Department of Conservation Canterbury [Christchurch]

Rural Fire Crews

Dept of Conservation [Bay of Plenty] – One crew of five
Dept of Conservation [Tongariro/Taupo] – One crew of five
Dept of Conservation [Waikato/Wanganui] – One crew of five
Auckland City Council [Great Barrier Is] – One crew of five
Lake Taupo Rural Fire District [Turangi] – One crew of five
Waimea Rural Fire District [Nelson] – One crew of five
Ruapehu District Council [Ohakune] – One crew of five
Whangarei District Council [Whangarei] – One crew of five
Southern Rural Fire District [Invercargill] – One crew of five
Marlborough District Council [Blenheim] – One crew of five

In addition one New Zealand Liaison Officer from the National Rural Fire Authority is already in Melbourne along with a Bushfire Research Scientist from SCION in Christchurch.

The NZ fire fighters and managers have been chosen for their remote high country and forestry firefighting experience. They will be required to walk into the remote wildfires in forested lands which will involve dry firefighting with hand tools and machinery along with back burning tasks. This deployment is from 4th March to approximately the end of March.

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