Local firefighters are on standby for communities in the south
Published Date: 26 Nov 2015
Summary
THE Orana Team of the NSW Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS) was on standby on Wednesday as colleagues in the south prepared for the possibility of fire.
By Kim Bartley
Team manager Superintendent Lyndon Wieland said the NSW RFS Mid Lachlan district looked set to cop "really bad fire weather".
Manager of the Orana Team of the NSW Rural Fire Service Superintendent Lyndon Wieland reports that it is currently on standby to help communities in the south.
"We'll certainly be on standby to assist our neighbours if we need to," he said.
In the 2014-15 financial year the Orana team supported five out-of-district fire-fighting campaigns in Western Australia, South Australia and NSW.
Staff and volunteers travelled away from home to protect life and property as bushfires raged in places like the Hunter Valley.
This month the NSW government announced the ranks of the NSW RFS had swelled to a record 74,516 volunteers who attended 7837 bushfires during the fire season beginning October 2014 and ending March 2015.
Superintendent Wieland said there was gradual growth in the Orana team with the majority of 1919 volunteer firefighters "operational".
Volunteers who did not go onto the fire ground helped "behind the scenes" in ways as diverse as making sandwiches and moving trucks, he said.
The 60 brigades in the NSW RFS Orana district cover 12,803 square kilometres, taking in Dubbo, Wellington and Narromine.
"A lot of our volunteers in rural areas are farmers and farmers' sons who are in brigades to protect their properties and their neighbours' properties," Superintendent Wieland said.
Volunteers who worked and lived at Dubbo joined the NSW RFS as an act of "community service", he said.
During the 2014-15 fire season the Orana firefighters attended about 200 incidents including grass fires, bushfires and car fires.
The figure jumped to about 300 across the 2014-15 financial year.
"That's just under one a day," Superintendent Wieland said.
"There are not too many days that go by where we don't have a tanker rolling out to some sort of an incident whether it be a motor vehicle accident, car fire, assisting NSW Ambulance or Fire and Rescue NSW, or related to our core fire-fighting roles."
Superintendent Wieland expected the Orana team would remain on standby through Thursday.
Since the start of this fire season the team has attended about 20 incidents.
Superintendent Wieland said he welcomed the "cool and moist" nights of late, knowing fires ignited in the heat of the afternoon would not run for long in such conditions.
