The Victoria State Emergency Service (VICSES) has launched a pilot program to provide volunteer hopefuls with hands-on experience.
In a statement, VICSES said the pilot surge volunteer scheme had kicked off in Central regions across greater Melbourne that had no Country Fire Authority (CFA) volunteering opportunities and long waiting lists to join VICSES.
“The surge volunteer scheme meets this demand for hands-on experience through supervised, support roles in large-scale operations,” VICSES said.
“When their community needs them the most, they can be deployed to triage jobs,” it said.
“Surge volunteers could make a valuable contribution to large-scale emergency response and recovery efforts by following up on calls from the public; identifying the most urgent requests; providing accurate and timely information; and liaising with partner agencies and power companies.
“VICSES surge capacity offers a pool of talented volunteers that can be dispatched anywhere in the State, as needed, so local units can release operationally trained volunteers to go out in the field.”
VICSES said the surge volunteers were individually attached to units to create a pool of candidates for more permanent opportunities, as Service members retired or moved on.
“Surge volunteers are also provided training in First Aid and Workplace Health and Safety.”
VICSES said it received about 2,000 enquiries last summer from people wanting to volunteer and the pilot was formed in response to manage the influx of people wanting to join the Service.
