WIMMERA residents will help in the planning process to fight fires in Victoria's east this week.
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Three Department of Environment, Lands Water and Planning personnel, one State Emergency Service officer and two Country Fire Authority members left Horsham on Monday for the incident control centre in Bairnsdale.
The flight the contingent was due to take on Monday was cancelled due to poor visibility at the Gippsland town's airfield, meaning they headed there by road.
The group will return in a week's time. For SES volunteer support officer Lauren Hawkins, of Horsham, it is her second deployment.
She was first sent out to work as a supply officer on Boxing Day.
"It's about supplying what the crews need on the ground... if they need water, food, generators or anything to keeps themselves running," she said.
"We also have a couple of airbases, so last week I was supplying some aviation fuel so the helicopters could pick up water. It's really dynamic... you have to think outside the box."
Ms Hawkins said the decisions she made during her last deployment included evacuating two security guards from the town of Swan Reach by boat as the smoke made it impossible to do so by air.
She also remembered hugging a woman out the front of SES accommodation in Bairnsdale, who had to leave her farm having recently lost her father.
"(The farm) was all she had left," she said.
"There is really good support (at the SES). You get a day to sleep after you return and the regional agency commander checks in with you about what you did that week."
Forest Fire Management Victoria fire behaviour analyst Darcy Prior is also heading to Bairnsdale. He said his role involved predicting where fire will spread.
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Alexander Darling
Alexander has been a member of the Wimmera Mail-Times' editorial team since December 2018, covering politics, business and property among other rounds. He is a passionate St.Kilda and rock and roll fan, and has previously worked as a radio reporter in Port Macquarie and Gosford, NSW.
Alexander has been a member of the Wimmera Mail-Times' editorial team since December 2018, covering politics, business and property among other rounds. He is a passionate St.Kilda and rock and roll fan, and has previously worked as a radio reporter in Port Macquarie and Gosford, NSW.
