Fire Fight raises nearly $10m
It’s a beautiful thing when we all get together to do something good. And that’s exactly what happened when Australia rallied at the Fire Fight Australia concert in Sydney on Sunday, February 16, raising a total of $9.85 million for bushfire affected communities. It was hosted by comedian Celeste Barber – who’s raised more than $51 million through her Facebook page – and she thanked volunteer firefighters. “Our volunteers across this entire country, they are the ones who saved us,” Barber told the crowd. “They are the ones who cancel holidays to stay here and look after us, and I will speak now very confidently on behalf of a nation when I say to those volunteers: Thank you.”
Almost 5 million tuned into Seven’s coverage of the event, and were treated to performances from Queen + Adam Lambert, k.d. lang, Delta Goodrem, 5 Seconds of Summer, John Farnham, and Olivia Newton-John, among others.
Fire Fight’s profits will be shared between the Red Cross’ disaster relief and recovery fund, rural and regional fire services and the RSPCA’s bushfire appeal. As to where the money from Barber’s enormous personal fundraiser will go, legal experts believe the NSW Supreme Court will need to intervene to enable the donations to be distributed to bushfire victims and first responders.
Currently nothing has made its way to those doing it tough because the RFS trust deed prevents donations being spent on purposes other than firefighting equipment and facilities, training and some administrative costs of the brigades. “We have our lawyers working with Celeste’s lawyers to find a way this can be done,” RFS spokesman James Morris told AAP.
– TEAM WHO