TWO Kerang SES members have been deployed to assist the firefighting effort at Corryong in north-eastern Victoria.
Deputy controller of operations Kyle Adamson and work health and safety officer Shelby Newton left Kerang on Thursday morning for a five to six day deployment to the emergency zone.
Mr Adamson and Ms Newton are a couple who have two small children.
“It’ll be the longest time we’ve left the six-month-old,” Mr Adamson said.
The pair don’t yet know what they will be doing.
SES North West Region operations manager Mal Ross said they would not be involved in directly fighting fires.
“SES is a support agency,” Mr Ross said.
“We can provide all sorts of support – from tree clearing to logistical-type support, like moving people and delivering equipment, food and water.”
Mr Ross said a request for ground support had come from incident controllers at Corryong, where fires have been raging out of control for days, causing significant community damage, including losses of property and stock.
Communities in the area have suffered power and telecommunications outages, with restoration of the services potentially taking days or weeks.
Fire authorities are concerned that with weather worsening in coming days, the Corryong fires could merge with fires in East Gippsland and the Alpine area.
More than 1000 firefighters are currently working on 47 fires burning across the state.
According to a CFA spokesperson, so far this season 766,000 hectares of the state has burnt.
Mr Adamson and Ms Newton were met in Kerang on Thursday morning by Swan Hill volunteers Shane Savage and Rod Knight.
The volunteers will travel together to Benalla, where they will be joined by two more SES members from Bendigo.
The north west region contingent will then travel together to the control centre in Tallangatta, west of Corryong.
Mr Adamson said the SES was grateful to employers and families, who enabled members to volunteer for the work.
Meanwhile, the Kerang SES has been kept busy over the Christmas/New Year’s period, with the emergency services volunteers called to six incidents in the past 10 days.
In addition to attending the minor collision of a Toyota HiAce van with the Swan Hill bound train on Saturday night, the crew has cleared five fallen trees in the holiday period.
The downed trees included one in Wellington St, Kerang, which brought down the power lines, and one on the Murray Valley Highway, which blocked one lane near the corner of Old Kerang Rd on Monday night.
