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Media Releases

Victorian vehicles headed to Tasmania

POSTED: 
27 January 2016

Twenty-nine Victorian emergency services vehicles will arrive in Devonport, Tasmania tomorrow morning to assist the Tasmania Fire Service in their firefighting efforts.

Tasmanian firefighters are battling more than 40 fires with 138 personnel from across Australia currently providing assistance on the ground.

Following the request of additional interstate vehicles, 12 tankers and nine support vehicles are now on their way across the Bass Strait with Toll Shipping, with an additional eight tankers to make the overnight voyage with the Spirit of Tasmania this evening. Accompanying the vehicles are six equipment support personnel.

Emergency Management Commissioner Craig Lapsley said Victoria was fortunate to be in a position to send additional resources to Tasmania.

“This small number of vehicles will provide much needed relief to our interstate colleagues, as part of our cross-border arrangements, and will not impact Victoria during the current summer period,” he said.

These vehicles are in addition to 17 incident management personnel deployed from Victoria. This includes eight personnel from Country Fire Authority (CFA), seven from Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP), one from Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) and one from Emergency Management Victoria (EMV).

All agencies across Victoria are committed to providing assistance, be this personnel or vehicles, to whichever state needs it the most at any time throughout the year.

“This is Victoria’s fifth interstate deployment in the past year, along with three international deployments clearly showing the flexibility across the sector to support each other at critical stages.”

For current information and warnings for the Tasmanian fires, please visit www.fire.tas.gov.au