Related: Central Victorian firies head to SA
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A Bendigo man and another from Castlemaine are among dozens of volunteers from central Victoria currently helping contain the deadly fires in South Australia.
Three central Victorian SES volunteers were among a state-wide contingent which left Melbourne yesterday: Bendigo’s Dave Lee, Bob Pratt from Castemaine and Gisborne’s Noel Theodore.
“It was an extremely quick response given the members were given half an hour to respond – half an hour to pack and depart,” Bendigo SES spokeperson Natalie Stanway said.
“The call out was at 11.30am yesterday and they were to depart Bendigo at 12pm.”
CFA volunteers from Bridgewater, Pyramid Hill, Echuca, Kyabram, Rochester, Girgarre, Rushworth, Fentons Creek and Kerang all arrived in South Australia yesterday and immediately saw action.
The convoy of 38 volunteers and ten vehicles from District 20 left the headquarters in Kerang shortly after 7am yesterday.
Photos from the CFA District 20 Facebook page show Strike Team 1802 being deployed to Tarlee, along with the message: “We are thinking of you all, stay safe and remember ‘Everyone Comes Home’".
Stanway said the SES volunteers would focus on clearing fallen trees from roads to allow emergency services access to affected areas.
“The trees fall and block tracks and roadways and our volunteers will be chainsawing and clearing those threes to allow CFA to get in and continue fire fighting efforts,” she said.
“When the area is declared safe, it will also allow residents to get back to their properties.”
She said Lee was a quiet achiever – forming an integral part of a state championship SES road rescue team which recently competed at the nationals in Alice Springs.
“Dave’s been an SES volunteer for almost seven years – he’s a well respected member of the unit and he’s very active.”