The Wesburn-Millgrove CFA will acquire a brand new fire response vehicle after it received a $71,000 Volunteer Emergency Services Equipment Program (VESEP) grant.
The brigade was one of 168 which received the grant from the State Government this year and brigade captain Sascha Grant said it will be great to show off the vehicle to the community.
“As a brigade we’re really excited to be able to be able to show it off to our community.
“We had support from the Yarra Valley Group who is the representative of the 11 brigades between Wandin and Reefton,” Mr Grant said.
The brigade raised an additional $36,000 themselves to fund the $107,000 purpose-built Ford Ranger.
“So the community has had a massive hand in helping us be able to afford this because the brigade will be contributing about $36,000,” he said.
While Mr Grant would’ve loved more funding from the government, he said the brigade was happy to raise costs as it meant more money could go around to other brigades.
“We understand that funding is always tight. I would prefer to see us contribute some money towards a project so that other brigades can also share that as well.
“But it also gives our brigade that sense of ownership and sense of pride that we’ve achieved something and all the members are putting to achieve that and the community is putting to achieve that.”
Compared to their older vehicle, which only had basic equipment, the new vehicle will enable the Wesburn-Millgrove CFA to do its job to the best of its ability.
“It has whiteboards, radios, workbenches, all sorts of things that all slide out of a great big canopy back.
“We will always get out the door and assist the communities in the best possible way for the best possible outcome. But having modern equipment means that we just enhance our ability to run those jobs,” Mr Grant said.
The vehicle will specifically be used as a base of operations for local jobs and it’ll serve as a strike team leader for when the brigade turns out to incidents further afield.
“We have a strike team leader who will be in that vehicle and will utilise all that equipment to ensure that that strike team runs as an effective firefighting force.
“It’s a command and control vehicle more than anything, but it means that the incident controller, or strike team leader that’s running that job, has access to the best information on the best platform to be able to sort of stand and work and coordinate a job from,” Mr Grant said.
With the new vehicle coming soon, Mr Grant said the brigade could always use more volunteers and those interested can apply at the CFA website here: shorturl.at/a2dF6.
