Northern Territory newish fire truck

[bajdas]

http://au.news.yahoo.com/080320/21/167rw.html

Thursday March 20, 05:10 PM
Rollout of new fire fighting trucks begins

The Lambells Lagoon Volunteer Bushfire Brigade says its new $60,000 dollar fire truck means it's better equipped than ever to deal with dangerous blazes.

The purchase is part of a Territory Government plan to buy two trucks a year over the next five years for volunteer brigades.

The brigade's captain Michael Delis says the four-wheel drive truck will improve the unit's ability to fight fires in Darwin's rural area.

"The conditions we've had, with a lot of rain, we're in for a big fire season.

"Traditionally, access to some of these fire grounds is restricted because of the old big tankers we used just weren't four-wheel drive.

"It gives us another fire fighting resource that you don't have to park up on the side of the road and just sit there and fuel up cars. You can actually get in there and do something with this too."

The truck has been bought from the West Australian Government.

[bajdas]

Interesting news article. The whereis website maps Lambells Lagoon has south of Darwin.

Now we all complain about equipment, training, etc, etc..... but the article states that Northern Territory are:

** replacing a two wheel drive truck with a second hand four wheel drive truck....thus they have not been able to go off-road previously.

** the Territory Government plan to buy TWO trucks per YEAR for the next five years for volunteer brigades.... how many do CFS replace each year ??

For my curiosity, for the majority of the Northern Territory, do they have volunteer emergency organisation or is it paid ? Or does nothing exist like some remote northern and western areas of South Australia ?

[bittenyakka]

i believe it is similar to SA with paid "mets" and vollies largely in urban fringe and bush.

and what is a $60000 truck going to be?

[Cameron Yelland]

Alot of fires up that way just get left to burn?

[littlejohn]

Alot of fires up that way just get left to burn?

Yes, kind of!

Considering that 97% (a guess) of the NT is pastoral or national parks, and sparsely populated. For the most part fires are either left to go, or contained with earthmoving equipment. If there's a fire on the neigbouring station, most people rock up with a dozer or grader!

I'm not sure what goes on around towns though. Not much, by the sound of it!