RFS trains in remote area firefighting in Mudgee

Local RFS members would normally travel to complete.  

The Cudgegong District RAFT team has been running since 2002 and is comprised of about eight brigade members from across the region.

They train to fight fires in remote environments away from where fire trucks can get to.

Jamie Hudson, leader of the local RAFT team, said that with this area of the organisation has become more specialised and training requires revisiting each year.

“Fire fighters have been doing remote fires for a long time but this is a bit more formalised now with specialist gear,” he said.

“One part of it is being able to be flown to a remote bush location in a helicopter and being winched down, which is something that inherently has a lot of dangers involved so we have to re-certify every year, you don’t do it once and forget about it.

“And this is the first time we’ve done a re-certification in Mudgee. Usually we do travel all over to places like Taree or Sydney.”

Mr Hudson added that travel is part of being a RAFT team member and during a bad fire season,  it was  common to be deployed to areas that are the worst hit.

“We’re mainly here but we do go to other places. Some members have been to Tasmania and Victoria,” he said.

“You get to go to a lot of places. 

“On really bad fire days there may be stand-by teams that they call RART (Rapid Aerial Response Teams) depending on where the weather is the worst.

“So if you get lightning go through,  you can send a RART crew out there straight after and get onto it when it’s just something simple like a tree burning, because a big fire always starts with a little fire.

“We also work with National Parks and Wildlife Services if they need extra men to held them out and we’ve got a good working relationship with them.

“And over the last couple of years we’ve also had members participate in the search at the Barrington Tops for the plane that went missing over 30 years ago.”