Bushfire response a ‘massive’ team effort from corps, SAES
- kirranicolle
- 23 hours ago
- 2 min read
BY KIRRALEE NICOLLE
With bushfires burning across multiple states, Salvation Army Emergency Services (SAES) teams are serving food and refreshments to fire crews at large response zones in Victoria and Western Australia.
In some areas, corps have also collaborated with SAES to deliver assistance to communities impacted by fire.
Crews in WA have spent the past eight days stationed at the Ravensthorpe fire, about five hours south of Perth, where at this stage they will remain until Friday. In addition, the crew spent some time serving meals and refreshments at the Boddington fire, several hours north of Ravensthorpe.
Across the two sites, teams served more than 500 personnel at each mealtime.
In Victoria, where in parts, temperatures have reached almost 49 degrees, fire crews have been battling to contain a series of blazes in the Otway Ranges, as well as multiple other fires.
Victorian teams are facing such extraordinary demand for essentials such as beds, blankets and pillows that supplies are running out.
The Victorian SAES have been deployed to a relief centre receiving evacuees from the regions near the Gellibrand, Carlisle River and Beech Forest fires.
Yesterday, Victorian teams were also called to an industrial waste fire in Wollert and a grassfire in Camperdown, where 100 and 300 people required food and refreshments. Roads in Camperdown have been blocked, so food is being transported via helicopter.
General Manager for Emergency, Aid and Development Daryl Crowden said he was thankful to the Western Victoria Regional team for organising and deploying the additional team for the Camperdown fire.
Colac Corps in Victoria has been assisting in the fire response in the nearby Otway region.
Corps Leader Josiah Van Niekerk said his team had been assisting SAES in the response efforts and were mostly concerned with ensuring that while immediate needs were met, evacuees were also getting adequate food assistance and referrals to services in preparation for returning home.
He said the team at Colac Corps had opened the corps building to community members for showers, laundry and cool room storage, and was acquiring donations of water, food and other essentials to distribute.
He said they had delivered cooked meals to fire crews until 2am this morning, and were back serving breakfast from 6.30am. He said it had been “really, really great” to be a part of seeing what the SAES teams do, and that the collective efforts had amounted to a “massive job”.
“We’re open to exploring however we can support the community, and then even getting people connected in with other groups to ensure that the services and the material that is needed for these people to bring their life back together and get going again – we want to ensure that's accessible,” Josiah said.
“It’s been a really great experience in that way, to be able to work as a community to ensure everyone's got support.”
Images from WA and Victoria, courtesy of SAES Facebook pages for each state.
