Strike team heads for Victoria's fires
The Ambulance Service of NSW was contacted by the New South Wales Rural Fire
Service (RFS) at 2330 hours on Saturday 7 February, requesting medical cover
for RFS officers being deployed to assist with the fire fighting efforts in
Victoria.
At 0530 hours on Sunday 8 February, the first Task Force of 87 NSW staff, including five Special Operations Rescue and Special Casualty Access Team (SCAT) paramedics, departed Sydney for deployment to Beechworth in Victoria. To date a total of 80 strike teams (five paramedic) have been deployed to attend to the RFS. The Ambulance staff have been providing pre-hospital, clinical and medical care to enable the NSW Rural Fire Service crews to perform their duties on the fire ground.
Ambulance will continue to provide support to the NSW Rural Fire Service until our services are no longer required.
Photograph: On Wednesday 11 February, the second Task Force departed Sydney. Mike Willis, General Manager, Operations wished the team well .
Ambulance is committed to assisting the community create safer and healthier environments and outcomes by making prevention everyone’s businesses. A number of innovative community education programs have been implemented to assist identify life threatening conditions, understand what to do in an emergency and the importance of adopting illness prevention strategies.