Today marks the 36th day of the current continuous deployments which began on 20 December 2019, at Cudlee Creek and at the Kangaroo Island fires. SAVEM teams have rotated throughout this time, rostering and resting 20 participating volunteers.
As in previous major fire deployments, we are now transitioning from a hospital-centred focus to a field search/assess/triage/treat model. This allows us to cover much larger portions of the landform and identify particular areas of need, assisting as many parts of the community and their animals as possible. We would like to thank all the in-field agencies who are helping us locate animals in distress. Joint Task Force, SA Power Networks, SA Water, Telstra, BlazeAid, Active Tree Services, the CFS, SES & MFS have all been “eyes and ears” to help our teams work as effectively as possible. We have two full teams present on the Island over the weekend, with both SAVEM and private team vehicles operating in areas likely to be refuges for surviving wildlife.
The photo below was taken at SAVEM’s Exercise Respond 2019 at Bushland Park near Lobethal. We all enjoyed this park’s natural beauty – which sadly is now totally reduced to ash from the 20 December Cudlee Creek fire.
