Help from the US saves historic hotel

'My role during the East Gippsland fires, was to act as a conduit between Victoria and a taskforce of 39 firefighters that were deployed out here to assist with the firefighting.

As 36 of the 39 firefighters were Division Supervisors (Sector Commanders in our structure), part of my role was to get a good understanding of how their accreditations tied in with our system, and to ensure that these highly-skilled personnel were being used to their best potential.

All of them came from federal agencies in the United States, such as the US Forest Service, National Parks Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Land Management so they were able to adapt very quickly to our firefighting systems and procedures.'

'We were sent to Anglers Rest mid-afternoon on Saturday January 12, after the fire at that end of the Omeo Division had got fairly active, and taken a bit of a run.

Given their skill set and extensive experience, the US crew were able to quickly identify that a strategic back burning operation would block the run of fire at the town’s Blue Duck Inn and surrounding residences. They cleared this plan with local FFMV Div Com Mal Smith and swiftly undertook the operation.

It was reassuring for those present to watch a group of people with that level of skill and experience apply their trade.

By seven o’clock that night, the operation was complete, and the pub and residences were still standing.

For the 28 days that they were here, these guys and girls were so keen to make a difference – even with everything going on in the background, all they wanted to do was to get out on the fireline and work as hard as they possibly could to support the Victorian community and their fellow Australian firefighters.

Anglers Rest is just one example of some pretty amazing work this taskforce undertook while they were here – we were very lucky to have them.'