Protecting Victoria's parks and communities from fire

Transcript

[Opening titles: Parks Victoria logo. Health Parks Health People logo. Forest Fire Management Victoria logo.] Protecting our parks and communities from fire.

[Music playing]

[Text on screen] Mike Stevens, Ranger Team Leader, Environment and Heritage

[Mike Stevens] So, Parks Victoria is essential to the to the fire effort across Victoria because we're in a very fortunate position of being the custodians of over four million hectares and embedded in land management.

[Text on screen] Nathan Sabbo, Field Service Officer

[Nathan Sabbo] Currently I'm a Fire and Emergency Field Service Officer based out of Anglesey.

[Text on screen] Prue Daley, Community Engagement and Tourism Officer

[Prue Daley] I've been working in fire for 22 years.

[Text on screen] Mark Urquhart, Regional Fire and Emergency Program Coordinator

[Mark Urquhart] My primary fire role is an air attack supervisor.

[Text on screen] Brooke Bailey, Ranger Team Leader, Fire and Emergency

[Brooke Bailey] My role centres around fire management anything from response to planned burning and search and rescue whatever is required of us.

[Music playing]

[Text on screen] Tristan Sarell, Field Service Officer

[Tristan Sarell] There are staff members here that have been actively involved in the fire program for 40 odd years and that's invaluable for people like me that are relatively new. I get to learn a lot through them

[Text on screen] Chittaphon Chimwaree, Ranger

[Chittaphon Chimwaree] For the Woodlands Park we work a lot with multi-agency because we are in the city we always work with the CFA, MFB and fire fighters from the Melbourne Airport as well.

[Text on screen] Greg Hitch, Ranger in Charge, Fire and Emergency

[Greg Hitch] So here we are Swain Street, one of our strategic breaks at Woodlands that the crew have put in over the last couple of years. They maintain it basically for the properties to the north we have an international radar site to the south of us basically that stops the spread of wildfire impacting those assets when it does occur.

[Text on screen] Sam Graham, Ranger Team Leader

[Sam Graham] So, this is where the fire started and quickly climbed into the canopy of the trees and as you can see it's really, really burnt the bush it burnt really quickly through here. We basically had Forest Fire Management Victoria working within the park and the CFA working in the private land but all working together using the same communication and the same attack strategy to suppress the fire.

[Text on screen] Alisson Bolden, Ranger

[Alisson Bolden] The roles are very integrated so during winter and the offseason of fire we're doing a lot of planning and monitoring and things like that and then when summer kicks off, we’re on standby and responding to wildfire and burning and all of that.

[Text on screen] Stewart Davidson, Field Service Officer

[Stewart Davidson] The rollout here pretty much involves me making up mixes for the aircraft of PHOS-CHek and water the retardant can be laid down in front of the fire so when the fire gets to that retardant it suppresses the fuel so the fire cannot burn any further.

[Text on screen] Pat Borgia, Field Service Officer

[Pat Borgia] Post-fire our biggest priority is getting the affected community back to normality as soon as possible one of the biggest risks is hazardous trees or trees that have been badly affected by fire we would go back over that area again and do a more thorough assessment of the trees before we could let community back into the fire area.

[Brooke Bailey] They're not just national parks to us, they're our backyards we care about the country that we're looking after.

[Mark Urquhart] Parks Victoria is in the Emergency Management game and we're just one of the agencies which fulfill the state's firefighting force.

[Music playing]

[Text on screen] Parks Victoria works as part of Forest Fire management Victoria with the Department of Environment, Lane, Water and Planning, VicForests and Melbourne Water.

Forest Fire Management Victoria’s aim is to reduce the risk and impact of bushfires on Victoria’s park, forests, and other public land.

[Closing titles: Parks Victoria logo. Health Parks Health People logo. Forest Fire Management Victoria logo.]