Emergency Management Victoria has unveiled its 50-strong fleet of firefighting aircraft ready to defend lives and property ahead of what’s expected to be a busy fire season.
The Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Lisa Neville and Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Lily D’Ambrosio joined Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp to unveil the fleet, marking the occasion with a fly-over by one of the fleets newest members, Marty – an orange aircrane.
“The record fleet will be critical to supporting our firefighters, including the return of two large air tankers and two aircranes,” Ms Neville said.
“The large air tankers can each carry up to 15,000 litres of water, foam or retardant and will be based at Avalon airport,” she said.
“The aircranes, which will be based at Essendon and Moorabbin airports, can carry up to 7,500 litres of water.”
Ms Neville said the fleet also included a mix of fire-bombing aircraft, air supervision and air intelligence-gathering aircraft, and had a surge capacity of up to 100 that would support the Victorian core fleet when needed.
Commissioner Crisp said intelligence-gathering night operations would continue over the summer using two helicopters.
“The majority of our helicopters and planes will be on pre-determined dispatch, which means they will respond immediately to fires at the same time as trucks and will be critical in keeping small fires small,” Commissioner Crisp said.
Commissioner Crisp said the aviation fleet was strategically placed across the State according to risk, which enabled aircraft to move around quickly in response to fires.
