Two Mackay firefighters were recently deployed to southern New South Wales to assist in the response to the state’s ongoing flood event.
Parts of NSW have been in a flood crisis for almost three months with emergency services from across the country rallying to assist.
Carl Jackson and Patrick McGuire of Mackay Fire and Rescue joined two firefighters from Gladstone and four from Airlie Beach, travelling to the NSW town of Deniliquin for seven days in late November.
The teams were tasked with conducting rapid damage assessments, spending most of their time in Moulamein, west of Deniliquin.
“It’s just a quick assessment of a house or a property to determine if it is habitable, how much water has gone through the house, do they have power, running water, sewerage,” said Mr Jackson.
“They call it rapid because it’s a brief snapshot of a particular area.
“That information then gets sent into the command centre to then allow our senior officers to coordinate the response and recovery and to allocate resources to specific areas.
“We were also part of a swift water crew, so if any persons were stuck in floodwater, we would then be the response crew to rescue them from the floodwater.”
The team also transported sandbags from Deniliquin to Moulamein, working alongside teams from Urban Search and Rescue, Marine Rescue, Rural Fire Service, Volunteer Rescue Association and SES.
“It was pretty cool … everyone wearing a different shirt but all working towards the same goal,” said Mr Jackson.
“Even though we’re from different agencies, we’ve got different procedures and policies, in the event of an emergency, we all just come together and we work in well together.”
Mr Jackson said while the town was experiencing an emergency, the people of Moulamein banded together.
“The first day we got there, there was a family of six with kids aged from seven up to 14 and they were helping to fill sandbags,” he said.
“That was just awesome to see, it’s just a good country town.”
Emergency services from across Australia joined forces to assist in the NSW flood response
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