Seven Heavy Tankers handed over to the west ahead of fire season
The broader Ballarat area has received seven new Heavy Tankers as part of the rollout of 50 new tankers across the state.
The Minister for Emergency Services today visited the Buninyong Fire Station with CFA Chief Officer Jason Heffernan to officially handover the new District 15 resources.
The new Heavy Tankers will go to the brigades of Ballan, Buninyong-Mt Helen, Creswick, Daylesford, Miners Rest, Napoleons-Enfield and Wendouree and the Ultra-heavy Tanker will be housed at Ballarat City Fire Station.
CFA Chief Officer Jason Heffernan said these new state-of-the-art assets are a welcome addition to District 15 ahead of summer.
"The Heavy Tankers feature a 15-tonne crew-cab chassis with a 4000-water litre tank, electronic monitors and electric rewind hose reels," CO Heffernan said.
"Their 4x4 capability and automatic transmission will help crews access fires in difficult terrain."
"The heavy tankers also have a 1200 litres per minute diesel engine-driven firefighting pump, crew/vehicle rollover and burnover protection and full equipment stowage cache."
"The Ultra-Heavy Tanker is a different machine and they are being deployed to areas around Victoria with open grasslands where they will be a great asset in fighting grass fires because of their water storage capability."
The Ultra Heavy Tankers have the capacity to carry 10,000 litres of water. Heavy Tankers can carry 4,000 litres.
Ballarat City Fire Brigade is the second of 29 brigades state-wide to receive one of the new Ultra Heavy Tankers. The first appliance was allocated to Berriwillock, near Swan Hill.
District 15 consists of 62 brigades. The seven brigades receiving the heavy tankers are supported by 471 volunteers that have responded to almost 570 incidents since the beginning of the year.
