General News
31 December, 2024
Aircraft continue offering aid
Fifty-four firefighting aircrafts are ready to respond across the state in what’s forecast to be the most high-risk fire season of recent years.
The aircraft have been strategically placed to support firefighting efforts on the ground and to provide aerial intelligence for quick decision making.
Minister for Emergency Services, Jaclyn Symes, was excited to see the returning Large Air Tankers which are an agile option that’s able to use smaller regional airports.
“From its base in Avalon it can reach Mildura in the north to Horsham in the west or Benambra in the north east,” she said.
These preparations follow the National Council for fire and emergency services’ (AFAC) seasonal bushfire outlook which flagged increased bushfire risk in large parts of Victoria.
AFAC found western parts of the state, including Central Goldfields, had less autumn-winter-spring rainfall, higher fuel availability, and higher fire occurences than average coming into summer.
Peter Higgins, the CFA Goldfields Group Officer, said that what’s important to the Goldfields is that air support is available.
“It just gives our crews on the ground a little bit of time to play catch up and get to the head of the fire,” he said.
Air support helps ground crews “knock out” the head of the fire, the direction the fire is moving, by being able to rewater quickly.
“Their recovery from water is so much shorter. When a truck runs out of water they might have to go five or ten kilometres to refill,” he said.
What’s more important to Mr Higgins however is air supports’ “imperative” role to see what ground crews can’t and provide critical decision-making information.
“Apart from them using water to knock the heads of the fire out it’s also giving eyes back to the ground crews which is so important when trying to get a fire to stay small,” he said.
In cooler weather ground crews need to request aerial support but in fire danger periods, when the trigger point of relative humidity and increased temperatures meet, both ground crews and aerial firefighters recieve the same page.
“They’re saving lives and they’re saving livestock. They’re just so important to us,” he said.