The Department of Sustainability and Environment in Victoria, Australia has made a second formal request to the National Rural Fire Authority for support from New Zealand to assist with management of a number of large uncontained wildfires in State lands of Victoria says New Zealand’s National Rural Fire Officer, Murray Dudfield.
A team of 57 fire fighters, crew leaders and Incident Management Team members from the following organisations across New Zealand will meet and leave from Auckland mid afternoon Wednesday [4th] aboard a New Zealand Defence Force aircraft: The following agencies have released staff for this Australian wildfire deployment:
Rural Fire Management Personnel
Paul Baker - National Rural Fire Authority [Napier]
John Sutton - Department of Conservation Bay of Plenty [Rotorua]
Nick McCabe - Waimea Rural Fire District [Nelson]
Bruce Janes – Department of Conservation Canterbury [Christchurch]
Bryan Cartelle – Manukau City Council [Manukau]
Malcolm Smith – Department of Conservation East Coast [Wairoa]
Ray Bellringer – Department of Conservation Canterbury [Christchurch]
Rural Fire Crews
Dept of Conservation [Bay of Plenty] – One crew of five
Dept of Conservation [Tongariro/Taupo] – One crew of five
Dept of Conservation [Waikato/Wanganui] – One crew of five
Auckland City Council [Great Barrier Is] – One crew of five
Lake Taupo Rural Fire District [Turangi] – One crew of five
Waimea Rural Fire District [Nelson] – One crew of five
Ruapehu District Council [Ohakune] – One crew of five
Whangarei District Council [Whangarei] – One crew of five
Southern Rural Fire District [Invercargill] – One crew of five
Marlborough District Council [Blenheim] – One crew of five
In addition one New Zealand Liaison Officer from the National Rural Fire Authority is already in Melbourne along with a Bushfire Research Scientist from SCION in Christchurch.
The NZ fire fighters and managers have been chosen for their remote high country and forestry firefighting experience. They will be required to walk into the remote wildfires in forested lands which will involve dry firefighting with hand tools and machinery along with back burning tasks. This deployment is from 4th March to approximately the end of March.
Contact the Operations Manager, National Rural Fire Authority – Gary Lockyer on 04 496 3600 or 027 614 0010 for comment.
Note for Media agencies:
If there is any interest in media agencies being at the RNZAF Whenuapai Base on Wednesday or Thursday, please register with Abi Davidson at the NRFA on 04 496 3688. This is a RNZAF security requirement, if you are not on the list you will not be allowed entry on to the base.