Central Victorian firefighters sent by CFA and Forest Fire Management to Gippsland fires

The Country Fire Authority's District 02 has sent about 45 people as part of two strike teams to help control fires at Bunyip State Forest and in Gippsland.

Forest Fire Management Victoria has sent 76 firefighters from central Victoria and the Mallee to help bring the fires under control.

Read more: Region's firefighters deployed to Bunyip

Operations officer Luke Waterson said the district has been supplying personnel to the Gippsland fire for the past six to eight weeks. 

Mr Waterson said the CFA sends out strike teams when resources are needed in other parts of the state.

Strike teams are "pre-populated" for every week during the fire danger period, ready to be deployed if they are needed.

Mr Waterson said it was normal procedure to share firefighting resources across the state.

The incident control centre at a fire would plan the resources required to fight that fire.

If it needs more resources than available, it would contact neighbouring districts, then the greater part of the state.

Mr Waterson said deployment of teams would depend on the fire situation, what's happening at a local level and availability.

Roles can vary from on-the-ground firefighters to people in incident management roles.

"That’s a coordinated discussion that happens at district and regional level to make sure that we’re planning and resourcing our state as best as possibly can," he said.

"Part of the planning for us that we do at group and district level is that we make sure that we’re not jeopardising our local availability."

FFM Vic regional manager forest and fire operations Allyson Lardner said four firefighting task forces had been sent from central Victoria and the Mallee this week.

These teams will help firefighters that have been on the ground for several weeks.

“The task forces rotate shifts to share the workload, to combat fatigue and to keep the community and each other safe," Ms Lardner said.

"They've been working in difficult conditions, undertaking tasks including, building rake-hoe lines, patrolling and extinguishing any hot spots."

Additional FFM Vic staff have also been sent to help the firefighting effort.

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