Victoria bushfires: Further 30 West Australian emergency services personnel deployed to assist local crews

Another 30 emergency services personnel from WA have headed east to help Victorian crews after catastrophic bushfires swept through the regions, destroying about 500 properties and claiming the life of a farmer.

The Department of Fire and Emergency Services sent 38 emergency services specialists to Victoria last weekend to help stretched crews. And on Friday, DFES confirmed they had dispatched a further 30 specialists firefighters and incident management personnel — including 16 Parks and Wildlife Service officers — bringing the total to 68.

Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Darren Klemm said he was proud of those who had “answered the call at such short notice.”

“They are extraordinary people from metropolitan and regional areas who are selfless and driven to protect communities in emergency situations like this,” he said.

“They have played key roles in the response, either on the frontline fighting fires, leading task forces or in incident management teams, utilising a wide range of skills including incident control, aviation, intelligence, public information and fire behaviour analysis.”

He said resource sharing between States and Territories was crucial when local resources were stretched.

“This is an opportunity for us to provide assistance after 50 personnel from South Australia, including firefighters, came over to WA recently to help our crews respond to the Boddington fire which threatened the townsite,” he said.

“We will continue to provide support to Victoria with specialist teams for as long as required.”

The fires — which have been burning for more than a week — have razed about 400,000 hectares of land and 250 homes. Multiple fires still were still burning near Walwa, Mt Darling and Longwood on Friday.

Cattle farmer Max Hobson was killed in the Longwood bushfires last weekend, his body found about 100m from his abandoned car near Seymour.

While parts of Victoria continued to battle ferocious bushfires, communities along the Great Ocean Road counted the cost after Thursday’s devastating flash floods.

Record rainfall of about 180mm in a six-hour period flooded areas around Wye River, Kennett River, Cumberland Creek and Lorne.

Local caravan owner Mel Strom said she and her husband spent the night salvaging their belongings.

“The flood took everything,” she said on Friday. “There were cars, there were eskies, there were surfboards, you name it. It was absolute carnage.”

“We’ve been very fortunate in this flash flood event that there’s only one injury that has been reported, and that was a young child that was airlifted out of the flash flood zone and they’d been taken off hospital,” he told The Herald Sun.

“We understand that the young child may have climbed onto the roof of one of the buildings inside the caravan park, but beyond that, I don’t have further details at this time.”

Federal Emergency Management Minister Kristy McBain described the flooding as “extraordinary and terrifying”, adding that the downpour was the highest for any 24-hour period since records began.