HAMILTON, VIC. — The Country Fire Authority (CFA) has boosted its aviation capability, with 12 CFA members recently earning roles within the state’s aviation crew, having worked their way through CFA’s new expression of interest process to better equip Victoria for fire seasons.
CFA Aviation Manager John Katakouzinos said the CFA members joined multi-agency personnel on a week-long course at the Hamilton Airbase last week (October 5-9) for their final assessment.
“We had six members in Hamilton doing their Airbase Manager course to support air crews, and they were selected out of the 120 people that nominated for it,” John said.
“Four members who expressed interest a few years ago to be Air Observers, have now finished their Air Attack Supervisors (AAS) course. Over the past two seasons they’ve accumulated hours of experience under two mentors to be eligible to become an AAS.
“We also had two members training in Hamilton to be Aircraft Officers, who are primarily based out of an Incident Control Centre. The pathway to that is by becoming an Airbase Manager first.”
To ensure the right people were in the right roles, and all members were aware of aviation opportunities, four years ago, CFA decided to change the learning and development pathways for aviation crew members and leaders, and it is now coming into fruition.
“Traditionally you nominate at a district with the role you’d like to undertake and then you’d become an Airbase Manager, managed by your district, and then you could work your way up,” John said.
“We’ve now created an expression of interest process at state level, with oversight across both the state and district, making sure that our members both on the ground and in the air are meeting what our expectations are of those positions.”
Wandin Fire Brigade member Andrew Feagan is training to be an AAS, a crew leader of the tactical aircraft bombing water, foam and retardant, and said it is the epitome of courses, and one that he thought he’d never get a chance to do in his CFA career.
“It’s been an amazing journey. I did the Air Observer course three years ago and have since put time and effort in and worked with some incredible people in aviation across all agencies to get a position on the air attack course,” Andrew said.
“It’s been great to bring my 28 years of fire knowledge into the aviation space. It’s a special role and a privilege, but also refreshing to have a good group of people coming through to make sure we’re providing a really good service to the aviation team.
“The program is fantastic, we’ve got some of the best instructors in Australia, if not the world, so we’re learning from them the best way to do the job. There has been a lot of theory which you’d expect, but it has been great to put it all into practice in the air too.”
Chris Segrave from Chiltern Fire Brigade expressed interest in becoming an Airbase Manager 12 months ago after seeing it promoted in CFA’s brigade magazine and is excited to expand on his aviation experience in resource coordination in the next fire season.
“After a number of interviews, I was selected to go for a familiarisation weekend to run through all the responsibilities required during an incident, and following completion of this course, we’ll be mentored into the role over the fire season and hopefully become accredited on the other side,” Chris said.
“Our role is to manage the airbase and look after the people here and in the sky, managing their food, water, accommodation and welfare to ensure that that everybody’s safe.
“I don’t go out on strike teams, so I’m looking forward to playing a role during the season, and helping to make sure that all aircraft can respond, to help the crews on the fireground do their job effectively.”
