Mark Shelton,Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Management
The newest members of the Tasmania Fire Service's remote area team were deployed yesterday to respond to a fire in Molesworth that is burning in steep terrain.
After a relatively quiet fire season, this is one of the first opportunities the new remote area firefighters have had to be deployed since they completed their training last year.
For this deployment volunteer members joined their career counterparts to operate as one remote area team.
The Government provided an additional $1.27 million in this financial year to support the Tasmania Fire Service with management, training and equipment to develop its volunteer remote firefighting capability.
Thirty volunteers completed their remote area training at the end of last year, enhancing the existing capability of over 100 remote area firefighters from career brigades.
Remote area firefighters access difficult terrain by helicopter, vehicle or on foot and use specialised pumps and hand tools to fight bushfires.
Reducing the risk of bushfires is essential to protecting Tasmanian life, property, infrastructure and our unique and beautiful natural assets, especially as we meet the challenges of climate change.
The Tasmanian Government is committed to keeping Tasmanians safe, and we know that developing an additional remote area response capability is an important step to meet our future challenges.
