Foreign firemen join fire fight

By Melissa Meehan
AN INTERNATIONAL and interstate contingent of firefighters will continue to fight the blaze threatening the Upper Yarra and Yarra Valley.
Last week 56 firefighters from Tasmania joined local crews fighting the blaze near the O’Shaughnessy Reservoir, yesterday (Monday) 40 New Zealand members began their first shift.
Today, 60 from the United States of America are also expected to join local efforts, along with a further 120 from New South Wales.
CFA Media Liaison Officer Mark Ryan, based at the Woori Yallock Incident Control Centre, said the international and interstate crews would integrate with local personnel.
Last week crews from the Tasmanian Fire Service, Parks and Wildlife and Forestry Tasmania flew to Melbourne to relieve their exhausted Victorian counterparts.
Their fire-fighting vehicles arrived on the Spirit of Tasmania ferry on Tuesday morning and the 93 professional and volunteer firefighters began their first 12-hour night shifts.
Mr Ryan said the arrival of new crews would allow local crews to get a much-needed rest.
“They will allow us to rest some of our guys, and integrate with them too,” he said.
“There is an international incident management criteria, so they will be able to work with us in the same way they do back home.”
David Nugent, resources planning officer, said part of the focus for visiting crews would be securing containment lines around blazes ahead of the hot weather expected throughout the month.
“We have been able to deploy the new crews to work on containment lines, but also to give our guys a rest,” he said.
As the Mail went to print fire crews had contained fires in both the Upper Yarra and Yarra Valley.
“Crews have contained fires within 100 kilometres of containment lines,” Mr Ryan said.
“They are now walking and accessing areas they haven’t previously been able to and are now back-burning areas of concern.
“This will continue for the remainder of the week.”