Australian Amateurs Volunteering to Run Fire Fighters' Radios
NEWINGTON, CT, Jan 24, 2003--With extreme wildfire conditions expected over the long Australia Day holiday weekend January 25-27, Amateur Radio volunteers have been operating fire fighting service radio communication equipment. The Wireless Institute of Australia Victoria reports that hams have been pitching in over the past week. Fires have been raging in the rugged alpine country of northeastern Victoria for 18 days, and smoke has blanketed area hundreds of kilometers away, including metropolitan Melbourne.
"There is an ongoing requirement for the hams to use their skills and handle essential and logistic radio traffic," the WIA Victoria said. "Hundreds of firefighters are battling the outbreaks in the heat and dense smoke, which for most of the past four days greatly reduced visibility limiting the use of aerial water bombers."
The WIA's emergency service arm, the Wireless Institute Civic Emergency Network (WICEN) has more than a dozen radio amateurs on duty at three center--Mt Beauty, Corryong and Ovens--operating radios and handling emergency traffic. WIA-Victoria President Jim Linton, VK3PC, said the forest lands fire fighting agency, the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE), called on WICEN-Victoria to provide operators to run its radio communication gear and free up personnel for other duties.
WIA reports that with no end to the fire emergency in sight, many residents of the stricken region have fled to safer areas as conditions worsen with high temperatures, single digit relative humidity and high winds. Celsius temperatures in the 40s, single-digit relative humidity and gusty winds have coupled with five years of drought conditions to set the scene for the worst summer fire season in 20 years, the WIA reports. In and around the capital city of Canberra, bush fires earlier this month claimed at least four lives, caused many more injuries and destroyed some 400 homes. WICEN was not activated in the Canberra area, however.
WICEN State Coordinator, John Kerr, VK3BAF, at Mt Beauty reports that the amateurs' assignments operating the trunking radio system have at times involved 12 to 14-hour shifts. He says the WICEN-Victoria members have fit in well and the DSE has expressed its appreciation for the volunteers' contributions. WICEN-Victoria has drawn up a list of volunteers to replace teams now in the field over the holiday weekend and to deploy elsewhere in Victoria if needed.
For more information, visit the WIA Victoria Web site.