Aerial contingent to support crews

Wimmera firefighting crews will again be supported by an aerial contingent when combatting grass and bush fires, as the fire season continues.

Forest Fire Management Wimmera emergency preparedness senior officer Paul Reichenbach said firefighting aircraft were based at Stawell Airport to respond to incidents in the Wimmera fire district, including CFA districts 16 and 17, during the fire danger period.

There are a number of firefighting aircraft located at Stawell Airport each summer, including four fixed-wing bombers with a capacity of up to 3000 litres of either water, foam or fire retardant.

There is also a small twin-engine Cessna.

“Two of these aircraft are on predetermined dispatch, so will dispatch automatically to a fire in certain weather conditions when an ESTA – Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority – Triple Zero pager message is sent for a grass or scrub fire within the aircraft operating area” he said. “These aircraft will be airborne within 15 minutes to support an incident, with the additional two aircraft available if the incident escalates.”

To assist in co-ordinating the effectiveness of the firebombing aircraft, an air attack supervisor is deployed in the Cessna aircraft and operates with the bombers.

The function of this role is to coordinate firebombing aircraft at an incident and communicate tactics with ground crews.

Mr Reichenbach said the Wimmera Forest Fire Management firefighting team this year included 80 firefighters, bolstered by an additional 36-person seasonal firefighting team.

“Community fire safety is a shared responsibility between fire services and all Victorians – everyone has a part to play,” he said.

“The summer forecast is for a hot, dry summer, and people need to keep up-to-date with their local conditions, obey all directions for total fire ban days, and never leave camp fires unattended.”

Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes and Emergency Management Commissioner Rick Nugent joined aerial crews and firefighting staff at Melbourne Avalon Airport to unveil and inspect the 2023-24 fleet in December.

The 51-strong contingent is larger than last year and includes a new high-capacity type-one helicopter with the ability to carry 10,000 litres of water and pick up seawater.

Two large air tankers return to Victoria, which can operate from smaller regional airports, making them more agile to move across the state as fire risk changes.

A Super Puma firebombing helicopter with a capacity of 2500 litres leads the night operations program.

Victoria also has a surge capacity of up to 100 aircraft to supplement the core fleet when needed.

Ms Symes said the fleet was another tool for hardworking crews to help protect Victorians, no matter where they live.

“Our aircraft will support our firefighters on the ground to help keep the community safe, but we need everyone to do their part by being ready to act and respond to fire risk,” she said.

Mr Nugent said Victorians were no stranger to concurrent and converging emergencies.

“Our aviation fleet remains an important asset alongside our hardworking and dedicated firefighters,” he said.

“It’s important to be prepared for fires and other emergencies, have a plan and never rely on one source of information.”

Mr Reichenbach said the aerial firefighting response was a multi-agency effort, and the air attack supervisor role could be filled by specially trained Forest Fire Management, FFMV, Country Fire Authority, CFA, or Fire Rescue Victoria personnel.

“Depending on firefighting conditions and tactics, FFMV operates a fire-retardant mixing and loading base at Stawell that can quickly bolster the firefighting capacity of the aircraft with fire-retardant loading,” he said.

“There is also additional support at other municipal airports across the

Wimmera, with trained CFA volunteers who are able to load aircraft with water on short notice.

“There are also two aircraft based at Nhill. They started at Linga in the Big Desert, are now at Nhill to provide additional capacity during harvest, before moving further south to Casterton as the seasonal drying conditions move across the landscape.

“Additional aircraft are brought into the Wimmera on days of high or extreme fire danger, depending on the fire risk, location and other incidents across the state, to ensure we are best placed for a fast and aggressive first attack.

“The importance of aerial firefighting is long proven, with predetermined dispatch arrangements in place, and these aircraft will often get to an incident before ground crews and can make an aggressive first attack to knock a fire down.

“Firefighting aircraft can travel from Stawell to St Arnaud in 13 minutes and from Stawell to the Little Desert National Park in 18 minutes.”