After days of high tem­per­a­tures, low humid­i­ty and wind that fanned a large bush­fire in the Ade­laide Hills of South Aus­tralia, comes rain with cool­er weath­er giv­ing relief to the area.
The fire that began ear­ly in Jan­u­ary cov­ered more than 12,500 hectares with a 240-kilo­me­tre perime­ter result­ed in hous­es and sheds being destroyed and wide areas of sheep and cat­tle farm­land burnt. About 130 peo­ple includ­ing fire­fight­ers need­ed med­ical treatment.
WICEN SA Pres­i­dent Nic McLean VK5ZAT said UHF com­mer­cial hand­held radios, which
WICEN owns, were giv­en to SAVEM (SA Vet­eri­nary Emer­gency Man­age­ment), and a radio mast to extend the range was installed.
An approach to WICEN by SAVEM in late 2013 result­ed in an agree­ment of help being pro­vid­ed to it with communications.
SAVEM with vet­eri­nary sur­geons and nurs­es is recog­nised for its response and recov­ery of com­pan­ion ani­mals, wildlife and live­stock. WICEN has an agree­ment with it to pro­vide com­mu­ni­ca­tions help.
WICEN SA is in the State Dis­as­ter Plan, pro­vides radio com­mu­ni­ca­tions and coop­er­ates with the State Emer­gency Ser­vice, The Sal­va­tion Army and the Red Cross dur­ing dis­as­ters and emergencies.
SAVEM liais­es with fire respon­ders, emer­gency man­age­ment and Biose­cu­ri­ty South Aus­tralia. It uses radio com­mu­ni­ca­tions and train­ing, both in-vehi­cle and with cen­tral con­trol, through tem­po­rary masts, equip­ment and per­son­nel from WICEN.
SAVEM Nurse Coor­di­na­tor, Car­ol Haley in a report said: “Radios sup­plied by WICEN enabled effi­cient com­mu­ni­ca­tion between each vehicle.
“The team attend­ed to koalas, kan­ga­roos, pos­sums, joeys, cats and sheep, and spoke to many mem­bers of the pub­lic and ani­mal owners.”
She said the hand­helds enabled effec­tive com­mu­ni­ca­tions in the Ade­laide Hills fire­ground area, while longer dis­tance com­mu­ni­ca­tion was through the South Aus­tralian Gov­ern­ment Net­work equipped fire vehicles.
Car­ol said: “A Sleepy Lizard was euthanased at Kers­brook oval, brought in by a Depart­ment of Envi­ron­ment, Water and Nat­ur­al Resources fire crew – the lizard’s feet had been burnt off.
“Sev­er­al ani­mals (koala, kan­ga­roo) with limb frac­tures… were euthanased by the team’s RSPCA offi­cer. Two koalas and one grey kan­ga­roo joey were triaged and not treat­ed local­ly, but tak­en back to Ade­laide. Being treat­ed for burns were three kan­ga­roo joeys (young ones).”
In addi­tion to burns injuries, many kan­ga­roos suf­fered from myopa­thy due to stress and flee­ing from the fire.
Sev­er­al ani­mals were brought to a con­trol area and they need­ed treat­ment, feed and hous­ing. Most wildlife were giv­en to fau­na car­ers for suit­able release later.
Chan­nel 9 tele­vi­sion did an inter­view with Car­ol from SAVEM in the Triage cen­tre, and CFS Media record­ed a short inter­view her lat­er, talk­ing about the work. SAVEM which is offi­cial­ly recog­nised has been very busy, giv­ing both ani­mal res­cue and WICEN some good publicity.
Hav­ing WICEN South Aus­tralia sup­port with com­mu­ni­ca­tion facil­i­ties has made the vital human­i­tar­i­an work of SAVEM a lot eas­i­er, and giv­en radio ama­teurs a new wor­thy addi­tion­al customer.
‑Jim Lin­ton VK3PC, Chair­man IARU Region 3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Committee.