News

In an Australian first, Victoria’s night firebombing capability is officially ready to be deployed.

Preparedness is the key message for this year’s summer fire campaign, which was launched at Avalon on Tuesday.

Yesterday Lifesaving Victoria released the 2017-18 Drowning Report, which showed there were 107 drowning incidents last year.

Victoria’s summer aviation fleet was launched today, marked with a fly-over by one of the newest members of the fleet, Christine.

Seventy-five Victorian firefighters and emergency management personnel will be deployed to Queensland to assist local crews as more than 120 fires continue to burn across the state.

The first day of summer for Victoria comes after heavy localised rainfall in some metropolitan Melbourne areas in the past few weeks and a Total Fire Ban declaration in the Mallee and Wimmera weather districts for 1 December, 2018.

Victoria will send approximately 80 firefighters and incident management personnel to Queensland to help that State as it battles more than 80 fires with conditions expected to worsen.

Victoria’s night firebombing trial will continue in 2018-19 summer and test the use of night vision technology for aerial firebombing operations at night.

Dixons Creek Primary School has won the 2018 Resilient Australia National Schools Award for their Firestick Project.

Marine search and rescue volunteers in Hastings were thrilled to receive their new search-and-rescue vessel last month.