Fire and Rescue NSW crews from the Central Coast have headed home after helping to deal with Victoria’s challenging bushfire crisis.
They joined crews from Windsor, Picton, Albury and Wagga Wagga to form a special Strike Team.
Central to the crews’ success was the deployment of Kariong Fire Station’s Bulk Water Carrier, which allowed the four tankers to travel back and forth from properties to refill locally from the mobile 9,000 litre supply.
The FRNSW crews and four NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) Strike Teams were assigned to a variety of jobs by Victoria’s Country Fire Authority (CFA) during the recent catastrophically hot weather conditions.
Dispatched from the Country Fire Authority’s (CFA) Great Western Base Camp and Staging Area at Beaufort, the FRNSW Strike Team was tasked with: extinguishing bushfire hot spots; removing fallen trees across access roads and driveways; identifying compromised trees that could fall; assisting farmers with potential fire risks; and cooling stocks of hay around the township of Raglan, west of Ballarat.
The FRNSW crews were farewelled by CFA Deputy Chief Officer Brett Boatman.
“Sometimes you’ve got to know when to put your hand up and ask for help,” he said.
“We’re really grateful for the help from the NSW Rural Fire Service and Fire and Rescue NSW coming down here.
“We looked at (the) forecast and we had some real concerns about where it was going to end up.
“We wish all the crews a safe return home.”