General News
8 November, 2024
Tarnagulla Fire Brigade boosted by grant
The Tarnagulla Fire Brigade has received $40,000 from the Volunteer Emergency Services Equipment Program (VESEP) to enable vital facility upgrades.
The grant will go towards the construction of a new shed to replace three sheds currently sitting at the back of their site.
According to Tarnagulla Fire Brigade Captain George Filev, the project will not only rehabilitate buildings currently “not fit for purpose”, but facilitate other necessary improvements across the brigade.
“We have been looking for years to try and get this to happen — the brigade have been discussing it at monthly meetings to look at what we could do,” he said.
“The equipment in [the sheds] is currently exposed to insects and weather, so we wanted to get a facility that was able to house all of that.
“We also have a couple of trailers with equipment like lighting and hose trailers that we want to store in the new shed.
“That would give us more room in the current shed for our crew members to dress because we don’t have a dedicated dressing area at the moment.”
The annual grants program, supplied by Emergency Management Victoria, provides over 66 percent of funding to projects allowing emergency services to purchase essential equipment or allow for facility upgrades.
This year’s VESEP has provided $15 million to CFA, VICSES, lifesaving, coast guard and other emergency groups across the state, with CFA receiving $11 million across 179 projects.
“We feel really lucky that we have had support through this application and people understand small brigades like ours need that support to survive,” Mr Filev said.
“These grants are so important because a lot of brigades are limited with the money they have and it’s an opportunity to get things you need with a helping hand.
“This project can’t happen without this support, we don’t have the financial capabilities to do this by ourselves.”
Tarnagulla Fire Brigade 2nd Lieutenant Lewis Bordon said the grant program highlights the importance of small local brigades.
“We cover a fair area, whenever there is a callout usually you have a few vehicles going to support,” he said.
“Sometimes you can be out there for hours and you need the extra vehicles and extra equipment.
“At times we need the second tanker to support the other vehicles out there by carrying water backwards and forwards to pump it into trucks which have their hoses deployed.”