Summary
A number of fires from a variety of ignition sources devastated areas of Victoria to the North East of Melbourne.
A tragic loss of life occurred, many homes were destroyed, large areas of land were burnt and several thousand Victorians have been evacuated from their homes. It is the largest single civil disaster event in history to occur in Australia.
Prime Minister John Key and his NZ government were quickly in contact with Australia to offer assistance and aid.
International assistance is now arriving from New Zealand and the USA. This has included Firefighters and Incident Management Team (IMT) members. A 1st NZ Contingent was formed up and flown to Victoria by the RNZAF. This has included Fire Fighters, Air Operations personnel, Fire Behaviour specialists and Incident Management Team members. A total of 52 NZ rural fire personnel including 13 DOC crew are currently now in Victoria.
Briefing from Gary and Murray (NRFA)
at Auckland Airport
Update
The last 24 hours have been spent issuing and sorting out the additional gear required for our assignment to the Fire Ground. This has included the issues of 4WD capable crew vehicles complete with radios and other equipment.
As you will imagine, there is a huge demand on local equipment and resources to configure and support our deployment to Victoria. Other resources continue to arrive from Interstate as well as Internationally creating further demands. We do expect however to be on our way late this afternoon (Sunday 15th) and potentially at work tomorrow morning.
Our assignment for the first 7 day rotation is to the Yarra Valley area where the Incident Control Point (ICP) is based in the town of Woori Yallek. We will be camped somewhere near WY, more details on this once we are checked into the ICP.
Every body on the team is fit and well, looking forward to getting on the road to Woori Yallek and getting to work tomorrow.
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